The new Turkey |
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26-Jul-2019 |
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Turkish government efforts to reverse brain drain fall short
Figures show, however, that the number of academics drawn to Turkey by the programme are a drop in the ocean compared to the number of driven away by legal persecution or the oppressive academic environment. Read the full article Migration from Turkey increased by 27.7 percent in 2018
In terms of age distribution, the biggest group of migrants were aged between 16 and 29, followed by the 13-24 age group and then those aged between 30 and 34 years. Thousands of people have left Turkey, some illegally, since a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 following which the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on non-loyalist citizens under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Read the full article
One out of four young Turks intends to move abroad
It indicated that one out of four young individuals aims to move abroad for better employment opportunities, more individual freedom and higher quality education. These young Turks are unable to envisage a future for themselves in their country, which they think lacks freedom of thought and is “heading south,” the report said. Youth unemployment was noted as another problem as the government agency for official statistics announced a 26.7 percent jobless rate for the 15-24 age group in January 2019, a figure that was 19.9 percent in the same month of last year. A total of 27.2 percent of the 15-to-29 age group in Turkey are neither working nor going to school, roughly twice the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD average of 13.4 percent. Another finding is that unemployment is higher among graduates of institutions of higher learning compared to those with a lower level of education.
10 percent of Turkish millionaires emigrated in 2018
China lost some 15,000 millionaires, amounting to 2 percent, during the year. But China produced more millionaires than it lost in the same period, according to the report. Economically troubled countries Venezuela, Turkey and Argentina lost over 20 percent of their wealth between 2017 and 2018, the report said, with Turkey ranking second in terms of loss with 23 percent. In a 10-year span, from 2008 to 2018, Turkey’s loss in wealth totaled 11 percent. Turkey’s economy has been experiencing a recession according to observers, with high inflation, high interest rates and unemployment increasing by the month. 24 April 2019:
“I want to study medicine at the Cologne University,” the girl said when the presenter asked her academic plans for the future. “Maybe after that I can become a German citizen.” Her answer shocked the presenter, who laughed nervously and said “no,” before saying that no boundaries should be imposed on children’s dreams on Apr. 23. The video clip soon went viral on Turkish social media, with many offering their own perspective. “If a children of ours, who looks at the future with hopes, wants to study in Germany and become a German citizen to fulfil her dreams, then particularly us, the politicians, should shake ourselves and reflect on this deeply,” Mustafa Yeneroğlu, a lawmaker of the Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on Twitter. Read the full article 7 February 2019: 9 January 2019:
8 January 2019: The companies affected by the exodus are state-controlled entities: defense electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey's largest defense firm; military software concern Havelsan; missile-maker Roketsan; defense technologies firm STM; Turkish Aerospace Industries; and SDT. SSB sent out questionnaires to all 272 individuals; 81 responded, and the following findings are based on their answers: * 41 percent are in the 26-30 age group. "This highlights a trend among the relatively young professionals to seek new opportunities abroad," one SSB official noted. 6 January 2019: The Netherlands received applications from 1020 academics and university graduates during the first 11 months of 2018, with applicants citing ‘’the shortage of freedoms in the country,’’ as the reason for their decision, IND records indicated. “Many academics have either been removed from their jobs or placed under arrest,’’ Ahmet Hallaçeli who is pursuing a master’s degree at Eindhoven University after arriving in the Netherlands in March of 2018, told Niuewsuur, a Dutch news program. ‘’We need free minds to pursue science, however, this is not possible in Turkey,’’ he said. Read the full article 2 January 2019: But after a failed 2016 coup, Mr. Erdogan embarked on a sweeping crackdown. Last year, the economy wobbled and the lira plunged soon after he won re-election with even greater powers. As cronyism and authoritarianism seep deeper into his administration, Turks are voting differently — this time with their feet. They are leaving the country in droves and taking talent and capital with them in a way that indicates a broad and alarming loss of confidence in Mr. Erdogan’s vision, according to government statistics and analysts. Read the full article 19 December 2018: "Academic bootlicking has become the campus norm," said the professor from Ankara. Not so shocking in a country where the president himself appoints presidents of all 200 or so universities. Recently, Islamist eccentricities in Turkish academia have become more visible than before, with secular Turks either going mad at fatwas or just laughing them away. In 2015, Nureddin Yıldız, an Islamic scholar and president of the Sosyal DokuFoundation, argued that "working women paved the way for prostitution." Alparslan Kuytul, founder of another Islamic foundation, Furkan, said that a man would be sexually aroused if he saw the naked leg of his own mother. Read the full article
24 November 2018: Number of Turks moving abroad increased by 63 percent, says report on emigration Two-fifth of those emigrated from Turkey are between the ages of 20 and 34, according to the report. The share of women in the total number of people emigrating from Turkey has reached to 42 percent in 2017 from 37 percent in 2016. “Over 1,000 of the 24,000 that left Turkey in 2016 to work abroad were engineers. Almost 100 architects are also among them,” the report said. The increase in emigration from Turkey is highest among doctors and academics, the report said. Açıkel said that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies had been forcing Turkish people to move abroad.
Read the full article 14 November 2018: "We are aiming to support qualified researchers and scholars in foreign countries – particularly the Turkish ones who came to the fore with high-level scientific and technological studies – to come to Turkey and carry out their studies at the country's leading academic and industrial institutions and organizations, as well as the public institutions," Varank said about the ministry's new project called "International Leader Researchers Program." Within this program, the total scholarship starts at 500,000 Turkish lira ($91,380) for young researchers and TL 1 million ($182,765) for more experienced researchers. Researchers will receive a TL 20,000 or 24,000 scholarship per month depending on their experience level. Read the full article 27 September 2018: Turkey’s educated secular youth are leaving for Europe In 2016, all graduates from Turkey’s leading English-language high schools applied to foreign universities according to a report from Turkish daily, Hurriyet. Turkey has, in fact, became the main source of “millionaire migrants” in 2016, losing 6,000 wealthy Turks in one year, a major jump compared to the 1,000 that left the country only a year before. Read the full article 21 September 2018: The staggering 42.5% increase in emigration last year stems from the political watersheds in 2016 and 2017. The failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, and the ensuing state of emergency resulted in severe restrictions on rights and freedoms. Then came the April 16, 2017, constitutional referendum, in which an authoritarian presidential regime was narrowly approved. Erdogan’s victory in the June 24 elections, which completed the transition to the new regime, and the ensuing economic downturn are expected to further accelerate the emigration wave. Read the full article 28 December 2017
He stacked another box with his prized academic books, deciding which of his 2,000 he would take. "I used to have a very healthy relationship with my religious students," he recalled. "But now they feel they're the elite and we're the pariah. Years ago, they were trying to get power. Now they have it, they're questioning our right to share it." Read the full article |
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Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varak announced a flagship academic funding programme late last year that was supposed to revitalise academia and reverse the widely reported brain drain.
The number of people who migrated from Turkey to other countries increased by 27.7 percent in 2018 when compared to 2017, with a total of 323,918 people leaving the country last year, according to a report released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). The report, titled “International Migration Statistics,” showed that 53.3 percent of the migrants were men while 46.7 percent were women and that 136,740 were Turkish citizens while 187,178 were foreign nationals.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has released a report that claims a quarter of the country’s young population is interested in settling in other countries, the T24 news website reported on Thursday. The report was published on the occasion of the centenary of May 19, 1919, a date officially commemorated in Turkey every year as “Youth and Sports Day.”
A Turkish girl who said in a live television interview on Tuesday that 
Turkey’s procurement authorities are working to identify why some of the industry’s most talented individuals are migrating to Western countries — an exodus that could stall several indigenous programs.
The number of Turks applying for jobs in the Netherlands has doubled in the past two years, left-wing news site Gazete Duvar reported on Sunday, citing statistics from Holland’s Immigration & Naturalisation Service (IND). A total of 540 university graduate Turks applied for jobs in the Netherlands in 2016, with this number rising to 1020 in the first 11 months of 2018, it said.
For 17 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won elections by offering voters a vision of restoring the glories of Turkey’s Ottoman past. He extended his country’s influence with increased trade and 
The number of Turkish people moving abroad has increased by 63 percent in 2017 according to a recent policy report on emigration prepared by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Birgün newspaper 
Turkey’s Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank admitted that Turkey is facing a serious brain drain when he met with Erdogan’s cabinet on September 13. Whether Varank was publicly ready to admit that Turkey is facing a major crisis as its educated youth flee for better prospects in the EU remains to be seen, but the government’s own official data confirms that young, secular and highly educated Turks are permanently emigrating to Europe.
"We're not even feeling safe during lectures anymore", he said, clearing the shelves in his Istanbul apartment. "We have to watch what we're saying. Some students record you and you see it on pro-government media - that you're insulting the president. You write something and you start getting threats and insults."