Increased migration of educated youth

The majority of the educated-youth attempt to leave the country as they feel that they can never achieve their dreams and targets while staying in a country where people cannot even afford to their basic needs

Sri Lanka presents a unique socio-economic and political issue in terms of educated youth migration due to the country’s “free education” system. It is the public funds that have been spent in building the country’s human resources that are flowing out of the country to serve elsewhere

Sri Lankans migrating to other countries for both temporary employment purpose and permanent residencial purpose continued to remain a socio-economic issue for decades

Many Sri Lankans want to leave the country, and most of them are from the “educatd youth” category. There is a growing discussion in Sri Lankaabout people’s desire to leave the country, especially within its currentpolitical and economic context. 
Sri Lankans migrating to other countries for both temporary employment purpose and permanent residencial purpose continued to remain a socio-economic issue for decades. However, the gravity of the problem appears to have often been undermined by the remittance flows that it has generated cushioning the country’s foreign exchange shortage. 

Remittance flows

Worker remittance flows that amounted to over US$7 billion a year prior to the Covid pandemic were the country’s largest foreign exchange earning sector. The second and third largest foreign exchange earnings as of 2018 came from apparel exports (about US$5 billion) and tourism (about US$ 4 billion) respectively. Interestingly, over the years worker remittances have grown faster than export earnings.
Migration for permanent residence, however, does not generate foreign remittances. Given the economic crisis in the country, the educated youth desiring to leave the country have increased remarkably. According to Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey 2021 of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), 1 in 16 Sri Lankans have plans to migrate. 
And most of them are young and educated. While about 48 percent of the age group of 18-29 years want to leave the country, about 53 percent of degree holders and 45 percent of A/Level qualification holders desire to migrate. Since the “educated youth” represent the future workforce of a country and are crucial for its long-term progress, increased labour migration has posed a new threat to the country’s development.

Educated youth

The statisticson migration from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and the Department of Immigration and Emigration show that location and gender differences matter in migration.According to official statistics, 311,056 people have left the country in 2022 – the highest so far in the history.Out of this 82,808 were from the Western Province. 
As far as desire to migrate is concerned, men outnumber women. According to the Survey results, while 34 percent of men against 22 percent of women have the desire to migrate, 20 percent of men against 12 percent of women have already started preparations for migration.
The level of education is highly correlated with desire to migrate. The youth who have acquired higher levels of education are aware of the fact that they have greater opportunities to find jobs in the countries which are open for absorbing foreign talents. The Survey has reported that approximately, one in two graduates in Sri Lanka has the desire to migrate. A study conducted in the year 2022 revealed that a considerable number of professionals plan to migrate permanently to OECD countries. During the past two years, it was reported that an overwhelming number of professionals have left their employment in Sri Lanka for migration.Accordingly, Sri Lankahas been losing part of its productive labour force due to brain drain, resulting in an adverse impact on the country’s current state of the economy and the medium-term growth prospects.

Driving force

Youth migration is driven by different set of factors, compared to those which force professionals to leave the country. After completing their secondary or tertiary level education or obtaining vocational training qualifications, the youth migrants want to start their independent life with high aspirations to build the future life. In the context of prevailing social, political and economic uncertainty they find it hard to achive their life aspirations for building a better quality of life. 
Reportedly, the majority of the educated-youth attempt to leave the country as they feel that they can never achieve their dreams and targets while staying in a country where people cannot even afford to their basic needs. 
Based on a case study published in the KDU Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in 2021 to identify the determinants of young Sri Lankan engineers migrating to Australia, political influence and corruption were identified as the major driving forces for them to migrate. Moreover, lower salaries and unfavorable working conditions in Sri Lanka have also impacted their decision to migrate. Having better opportunities for career advancement and education in their destination country and the desire to gain exposure to a new culture havealso contributed to their decisions.
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, even before the crisis hit the economy, the youth unemployment rate in Sri Lanka was 17.4 percent in 2017. It increased to 21.1 percent in 2021 and to 26.1 percent in 2022.
Furthermore, according to anecdotal evidence and media reports,the current economic and political crisis could be identified as a key driving force for the increase in the number of youth migrants in Sri Lanka. Although the economic crisis is key driver of migration, the crisis impact on currency depreciation has even made migration more difficult, leading for some youth migrants to seek alternative and irregular as well as often unsafe pathways to migrate. 

Concluding remarks

In conclusion, the current Sri Lankan context compelled mostly the educated and young people to migrate. Increase in the number of migrations as well as the number of desiring to migrate is not an unusual phenomenon in an economc crisis situation as evident in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the world. However, the question in issue is its adverse impact on potential economic recovery and progress beyond recovery. This is because it is the educated youth who could play a pivotal role in the economy an who disproportionately represents a large share of migrant people in a crisis situation.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka presents a unique socio-economic and political issue in terms of educated youth migration due to the country’s “free education” system. It is the public funds that have been spent in building the country’s human resources that are flowing out of the country to serve elsewhere. The recovery from economic crisis and the progress beyond recovery are the key factors that would slow down the country’s increased migration and support the economy.
(Chamathi Serasinghe is a Junior Research Professional of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) engaged in research under the thematic area of Labour Migration. She is a graduate in Sociology from the University of Ruhuna.)