Dismay as Sri Lanka negotiates with brain drain!

The Department of Immigration and Emigration has been flooded with thousands of middle-class and impoverished Sri Lankans waiting in line for passports

The brain drain from Sri Lanka continues as the country grapples with hyperinflation and economic turmoil. Increasing numbers of Sri Lankans, who are frustrated with the country’s economic turmoil, are compelled to leave the country to take advantage of the rupee’s decline and send more money home to support their family during hyperinflation.

Although experts warn that the South Asian nation is at risk of escalating brain drain the government, which is in desperate need of foreign funds, looks only too eager to let them depart.
Tuk tuk driver Tiron Sampath recently waited in line for nearly 45 hours to renew his passport. He had worked in Dubai as a domestic helper till 2019. This time he has been promised a better job in Dubai; which would fetch him a better pay than his current job. The opportunity seemed too good to miss. 

“I regret returning to Sri Lanka, but this is our country. Anyhow if people continue to live like this in Sri Lanka they would become bankrupt in no time. Earlier I was happy to be in Sri Lanka. True that I earned a better pay pack in Dubai compared to here, but we always have that soft corner for our motherland. But I can no longer afford to live in this country, it is not only about a financial matter, but mentally too the country is no longer offering any motivation,” Sampath added. 

He also added that as a tuk tuk driver obtaining fuel in keeping with a QR code seems extremely impractical. “During the past few months we literally had to die in fuel queues. Now the government has started issuing fuel in keeping with a QR code. Practically speaking the amount of fuel we obtain through the QR code doesn’t suffice to even cover our daily expenses. It is unbelievable that the top heads are such babies. Top heads are nothing more than leeches who suck all our blood,” he said in anguish. 

"True that I earned a better pay pack in Dubai compared to here, but we always have that soft corner for our motherland. But I can no longer afford to live in this country" -Tiron

Iroshi and Rajith-husband and wife- were waiting in line for more than 40 hours to obtain their passports. Iroshi who runs a beauty salon in Malabe, says that her clientele has drastically dropped due to the current economic situation. “How can people spend on beauty while their stomachs are rumbling for some food? People are not in a position to spend on maintaining appearance when they are struggling for their next meal. My husband and I are both 36 and we still have so much to do in life, so we thought of leaving the country in search of better opportunities and the chance to find happiness in life ahead because leisure and recreation seem luxuries that we cannot afford in Sri Lanka,” she added. 

She added that her husband is a grocery store owner and in the manner in which sales are taking place it is evident that the majority of Sri Lankans cannot afford a basic meal due to hyperinflation. 
The Sri Lankan rupee has plummeted; depreciating from roughly 190 in December to about 370 against the US dollar. The Department of Immigration and Emigration has been flooded with thousands of middle-class and impoverished Sri Lankans waiting in line for passports as they desperately fight an economic collapse to buy food and fuel due to inflation that exceeded 60% in August.

During the past few months in 2022, the Government has issued passports to over 600,000 individuals; the number surpasses the total passport issuances in 2021. More damning is the comparison of data between 2019 and 2022. 612,278 passports have been issued for 2022 already (1st week of September 2022), whereas only 570,676 were issued in 2019; the pre-Covid year.

As of July 2022, 173,685 people had registered to work abroad; according to Manusha Nanayakkara, the minister of labor and foreign employment. The number of people who have registered to work abroad in the first half of 2022 has exceeded the total number of registers in 2021, which is 122750. 
The majority are migrating to Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. 
According to the statistics the Daily Mirror obtained from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), a total of 43, 637 have registered to go to Kuwait, 40, 689 to Qatar, 28,661 to Saudi Arabia and 22, 209 to UAE as of July 2022. 

International migration has always played a significant role in Sri Lanka’s economy and foreign exchange reserves. From 1981 to 2000, remittances as a proportion of GDP averaged approximately 5.7%; between 2001 and 2020, it increased to nearly 8%.
Central Bank refers to remittances from employees as a “key pillar of Sri Lanka’s foreign currency earnings,” adding that they have been the country’s main source of inflows of foreign currency for the previous ten years. According to figures from the bank, the sum reached $7 billion two years ago. Yet only $1.6 billion was received in the first half of 2022.

The usage of informal remittance techniques, which is partly driven by the central bank’s own currency policies as well as confidence in the government, is one of several causes for the decline that experts perceive.
In an effort to increase emigration and remittance inflows the government has promoted emigration and taken a number of actions during the last six months.

The government lowered the requirement for women working abroad from 35 to 21. Additionally, it removed the need for female migrant domestic employees to provide a report of their family history.
However, economic experts caution that Sri Lankans entertaining thoughts of living abroad face the danger of becoming victims of human traffickers and dishonest agents. The brain drain is another issue.

“My husband and I are both 36 and we still have so much to do in life. Leisure and recreation seem luxuries that we cannot afford in Sri Lanka,” - Iroshi

In a recent interview with Daily Mirror Minister Nanayakkara said that though a brain drain is possible under the given circumstances it amounts to be the best calculated decision. “The decision was about calculating the damage due to brain drain vs. the suffering of Sri Lankans due to the economic malaise, and we assessed that brain drain was less damaging to the country. And also, when the country returns to normalcy we will be able to get back the people who migrated. This is about sending people for work, but on the other hand, educated people are emigrating at a higher rate, and the country’s current situation is the basis for that. The brain drain mostly happens not with the set of people sent by the Ministry, but with educated professionals who have decided to leave the country,” Nanayakkara said. 

So to summarise the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment sends the workforce and obtains Forex to stop the brain drain. Via the Ministry, only a few professionals seek opportunities abroad as the working force is primarily semi-skilled and low-skilled. 

According to the statistics obtained by the SLBFE, 38,148 has registered as Housemaids, 15,949 for labour, 14,897 as drivers and 10, 521 as domestic workers as of July 2022. 
While it has historically been more common for unskilled and semi-skilled workers to look for work in the Middle East and Europe, the current economic crisis is driving even skilled workers out of the country; including professionals in the hospitality, marketing, and information technology industries.

Sandaru Kodithuwakku, who specialised in Software Engineering and graduated from a private university, has now fled as he was frustrated with the power cuts and had lost several international projects during the past few months. “We belong to the IT sector and power is an essential component to run and grow our business. I still feel sorry to leave Sri Lanka. I miss my family and friends. I feel depressed at certain times to have left the country at this age, but I could not provide sufficiently for my family while I was losing clients,” he added. 
Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) data indicate that 27% of Sri Lankans would like to emigrate if they had the opportunity, with the young and the educated wanting to migrate the most. Of those who would like to emigrate, 1 in 4 have plans to do so. 

A survey by an independent research group at Sri Lanka’s Institute for Health Policy, in comparison with earlier surveys, implies that the number of Sri Lankans who want to emigrate has likely doubled since 3–5 years ago. 
“Men are more likely than women to want to emigrate if given an oppotunity, but the groups expressing the greatest desire to emigrate are the youth (ages 18–29 years) and university graduates; around 1 in 2 like to emigrate if given a chance, and those in the Northern and Eastern provinces, around 2 in 5 would like to emigrate if given a chance,” says the Institute for Health Policy. 
When observing these statistics it is doubtful whether Sri Lanka is the Philippines of South Asia when it comes to emigration.

Pictures by Waruna Wanniarachchi