Tunisia's Brain Drain: Crisis or Opportunity?

Tunisia is increasingly grappling with the accelerating exodus of its skilled workforce, prompting lawmakers to draft legislation to address the issue. However, critics argue that the proposed law lacks constitutional legitimacy.

The latest remarks on this matter came from Mohamed Blidi, director-general of the Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation, who described the migration of talent as a "sensitive issue" that requires “debate and in-depth study.”

In an interview with local radio station Mosaique FM on 28 November 2024, Blidi revealed that by the end of October 2024, “3,198 Tunisians had been recruited to work abroad,” with the highest demand for Tunisian expertise in the health and education sectors.

Blidi added that a total of 26,000 Tunisians are currently employed overseas, more than 60% of whom work in health (31%) and education (37%), while the remainder are spread across a variety of other sectors.

Crisis or Opportunity

Regarding the destinations, Belidi said “Germany is the country with the highest demand for Tunisian skills” in 2024, with a decline in migration to other Arab nations, while European countries like France and Italy have seen a rise in demand for skilled Tunisians.

He explained that, in 2024 alone, 88 specialist doctors, 22 general practitioners, and 145 engineers had left to work abroad. 

Blidi also noted that the agency is working to streamline technical cooperation and balance the national and international demand for Tunisian expertise.

The Tunisian Agency for Technical Cooperation (ATCT), established in 1972, is a public institution tasked with executing the state's technical cooperation policy. 

It facilitates the deployment of Tunisian professionals to meet the needs of various countries, especially in the Arab and African regions, while also running development programs under bilateral or multilateral cooperation frameworks.

In March 2024, the agency revealed that it had received around 23,000 applications from individuals seeking work abroad through technical cooperation, with the majority coming from the education, electrical and mechanical engineering, and electronics sectors.

In 2022, the General Union of Higher Education and Scientific Research, a trade union under the UGTT, stated that approximately 2,014 university professors had left in search of better opportunities.

Civil society activist Ahmed Jerbi believes that the rising rates of talent migration are driven by both personal and structural factors, pointing to the significant influence of political dynamics on the phenomenon.

Jerbi explained to Al-Estiklal that countries experiencing political turmoil and economic crises "witness the highest rates of talent migration."

"In fact, even some countries with relative stability struggle to curb this type of migration, as they cannot, for instance, compete with European or American universities in offering high-quality academic programs. As a result, dozens of top high school graduates leave every year to study abroad."

"These high-achieving students often settle abroad after graduation, attracted by the abundance of job opportunities and higher wages. Moreover, some of them struggle to find employment in their home country that matches their academic qualifications."

"The crisis has now extended to middle-performing students, with families increasingly prioritizing sending their children abroad to complete their studies, sometimes even selling their homes to cover tuition costs. They view this as an investment, especially given the weak local job market and high unemployment rates."

"The state must introduce legislation and measures that encourage these skilled individuals to return and settle in the country, especially since they possess high levels of education, meaning the country would benefit from the transfer of technology and their return would add value to the local economy," Jerbi noted.

On another note, Jerbi added that even those who remain abroad represent a crucial source of foreign currency, particularly as remittances from Tunisians living abroad exceeded tourism revenues in 2023.

Parliamentary Intervention

As Tunisia faces a growing exodus of skilled professionals, several parliamentarians have started working on a legislative proposal aimed at reducing the country’s brain drain. 

The proposed law would require financial compensation from both the migrants and the countries that benefit from their expertise—a move that has sparked mixed reactions.

The proposed law suggests a monthly deduction of $180 for a period of five years, intended to cover a portion of the costs the state has incurred in training doctors and engineers who choose to migrate.

In this regard, Member of Parliament Fatma Mseddi explained that the proposed law would require graduates from Tunisian universities in fields such as medicine, engineering, and high-level technical specialties, who opt to work abroad in the first five years after graduation, to repay 50% of their tuition costs. 

This repayment would be made in annual installments, according to a schedule agreed upon between the graduate and the Ministry of Higher Education.

In a Facebook post on 24 November 2024, Mseddi added that the law would exempt graduates who return to work in Tunisia before the five-year period expires, provided they remain and work in the country for at least three consecutive years.

The Parliamentarian explained that the funds raised from this program would be used to improve the quality of higher education and develop the infrastructure of Tunisian universities.

She clarified that the proposal for this law comes in response to the growing phenomenon of brain drain, particularly among doctors and engineers who were educated in Tunisia. This migration has led to a drain on skilled human resources and caused significant financial losses to the state.

“The country invests in the education of these professionals without benefiting from their expertise in the nation’s development, in addition to the negative impact migration has on the quality of healthcare and technical services in Tunisia,” Mseddi continued.

She also noted that the law aims to establish a mechanism for recovering part of the higher education costs from graduates who choose to work abroad, while seeking to strike a balance between individuals' freedom to choose where they work and the state's right to benefit from its investment in higher education.

For his part, Fakhredine Fadhloun, the head of the parliamentary committee on education, vocational training, youth, and sports, explained that the proposed law primarily targets doctors and engineers, whose education and training in Tunisian institutions cost approximately $34,000. The law’s aim, he said, is to "recover as much of the training costs as possible."

In a press statement, Fadhloun added that, in addition to the legislative initiative to be discussed in parliament, there are plans to introduce a new provision in the 2025 Finance Law. 

This would require anyone wishing to emigrate from Tunisia, whether a doctor or engineer, to pay a portion of their training costs in Tunisia, to be paid over a period exceeding five years.

He stressed that the primary motivation for the new law is to curb the drain of skilled professionals, particularly in engineering and medicine, a trend that has worsened in recent years and has resulted in severe shortages in these sectors.

Fadhloun explained that the cost of training doctors and engineers is borne by Tunisian taxpayers across all segments of society. 

"They do not benefit from their services in Tunisia," highlighting the "severe shortage" of specialized doctors in healthcare institutions.

"We are not opposed to their desire to travel and seek employment abroad, but they must give the state its due. That is, they should repay a portion of the higher education costs they incurred, which involved significant financial investment, while only the destination countries benefit from their expertise," Fadhloun noted.

The head of the parliamentary committee added that this legislative initiative "is not without precedent," noting that Tunisia’s military forces impose financial compensation on personnel who wish to leave, as a way to cover the cost of their training within the institution.

The legislative initiative comes at a time when Tunisia is grappling with significant economic and social challenges, including an unemployment rate that exceeds 16%, prompting a range of opinions about the motivations behind the proposal and its potential impact on the country’s skilled workforce.

According to official statistics provided by the Tunisian Institute of Strategic Studies, a government body under the presidency, nearly 3,000 engineers leave Tunisia every year.

Meanwhile, the number of medical professionals migrating has reached around 4,000 over the past three years.

The Institute had previously suggested, in a study titled 'Migration of Health Professionals: Challenges to Tunisia's Healthcare System,' that compensation be imposed in the form of salary deductions or taxes on the wages of those leaving, in agreement with the host country. 

The proposal also included a requirement for a minimum number of years of service in the country of origin, as well as a commitment to civil service in priority regions.

Widespread Rejection

The parliamentary initiative has faced significant opposition from various voices in Tunisia, with some arguing that it violates the constitution, while others describe it as "empty rhetoric and shallow populism." This sentiment was echoed by civil society activist Ahmed Jerbi, who expressed his concerns to Al-Estiklal.

On the union front, Kamel Sahnoun, the head of the Tunisian Engineers’ Syndicate, labelled the proposed law as "a strange initiative that does not warrant serious discussion at the syndicate level."

In an interview with Assabah News on November 28, Sahnoun explained that the bill contradicts the country’s constitution, which guarantees free education as a constitutional right for all Tunisians. He suggested that President Kais Saied would likely refuse to sign the bill into law if it were passed by parliament.

“Tunisia is not a prison. This legislative initiative targets Tunisia’s skilled professionals rather than supporting them, and it will not contribute to boosting the state's financial resources. Most of the emigrants leave the country through private initiatives, not state-run recruitment offices, and they are not required to obtain exit permits,” Sahnoun added.

Regarding the potential consequences of the proposed law, the head of the Engineers' Syndicate warned that it would lead to fewer skilled Tunisians returning to the country and contributing to the establishment of projects that could drive economic growth.

He emphasized the need to focus on "improving the financial and moral conditions of engineers and fostering a better investment climate in Tunisia."

The Syndicate estimates that Tunisia produces around 8,500 engineering graduates each year, while between 2015 and 2020, more than 39,000 engineers left the country.

Meanwhile, Nizar Eladhari, the Secretary-General of the Tunisian Medical Syndicate, argued that the punitive measures outlined in the legislative proposal "would undermine personal freedoms and exacerbate the brain drain crisis, particularly in the medical field."

In a series of press statements, Eladhari noted that imposing financial compensation on doctors wishing to work abroad "would discourage young people in Tunisia from pursuing a medical career, while also closing the door for those wishing to return and launch businesses in the country."

He explained that the Tunisian Medical Association will work on proposing new measures to address the brain drain of medical professionals, pointing out that 1,300 doctors, most of them young, have left Tunisia in 2024.

Dr. Bacem Mnif also stressed that the proposed bill by the parliament to curb the migration of skilled professionals “will have the opposite effect and lead to disaster.”

In a post on his Facebook account on November 27, 2024, Basem stated that “what will happen is that these emigrants will stop sending money back to Tunisia, whether for investment or other purposes, even though these remittances are a major source of foreign currency.”

“This means a double loss: the loss of expertise that will never return to the country, and the loss of much-needed foreign currency from their significant remittances.” Bacem added.

A Future Outlook

Civil society activist Ahmed Jerbi stressed that addressing the phenomenon of skilled migration, or brain drain, is not a short-term issue that can be resolved by a legislative initiative. 

"It requires strategic programs and policies," he told Al-Estiklal.

Jerbi emphasized that the depth of such a strategy must be anchored in a clear goal: making the country capable of retaining its own talent. 

"This requires, among other things, providing a democratic political environment and a robust economy capable of creating jobs—both in quantity and quality," he explained.

In a similar vein, Ali Baklouti, a professor at the University of Sfax and the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Pfizer Award, called on the Tunisian government to implement a comprehensive strategy aimed at harnessing the country’s scientific expertise and human capital. 

The objective, he said, should be to overhaul the research ecosystem and reduce the ongoing brain drain.

Speaking to Tunisia's national radio on November 29, 2024, Baklouti acknowledged that mitigating the exodus of skilled professionals would take time. 

"This is a process that requires patience and long-term commitment," he explained.

Baklouti further stressed that the industrial ecosystem must align more closely with academia, following the model seen in the United States.

The university professor, Ali Baklouti, highlighted that "Tunisia possesses a vast human resource base and significant scientific expertise, and it holds an edge in terms of research. However, there is a substantial gap in financial resources, which calls for the implementation of a strategy to harness this human capital and, in turn, help mitigate the brain drain."

Meanwhile, political activist and doctor Riadh Jlassi argued that, amid the growing debate on curbing the migration of doctors and engineers from Tunisia, there is a need to reconsider the root cause of the issue rather than focusing on superficial solutions.

In a Facebook post on November 27, 2024, Jlassi posed the question: "Is a ban the solution?" and quickly answered, "Certainly not."

“Brain drain is not an easy choice. It is often the result of unfavourable professional and social conditions," Jlassi said.

Jlassi emphasized that the real solution lies in creating an environment in Tunisia that fosters professional growth, by providing fair employment opportunities that match individuals' skills and expertise. 

This, he argued, would include improving working conditions, particularly in vital sectors such as healthcare and engineering, and strengthening societal appreciation for professionals, offering both moral and financial support.

"Rather than closing doors to talented individuals, the focus should be on opening avenues for their development within the country. In doing so, migration would no longer be their first choice, but rather an exception," Jlassi concluded.