Ausländer

In his book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, German-American economist and social scientist Albert O. Hirschman states that people living under oppressive regimes essentially exhibit three different attitudes: they either choose to protect their interests by showing loyalty to the system, rebel against the order, or exit the system entirely.

While going abroad—that is, outside the system—was once a place to pursue higher education, for the younger generation, higher education has now turned into a stepping stone used to leave the country. In the past, those who were sent out as sparks and returned as flames have now been replaced by our most qualified white-collar population, who are being consciously driven out of the country with the rhetoric of "let them go if they want to." The fact that Istanbul High School (İstanbul Erkek Lisesi) surpassed Galatasaray High School in high school placement results after many years is an indicator that the flight from the system has become a decisive factor even in the high school preferences of primary school students.

Looking at it through the eyes of a student at that age, while Istanbul High School is a path to studying and settling in Germany or Switzerland, Galatasaray represents a community that is the most difficult to join later on. In other words, it is clear that 14-year-olds have already planned their lives outside the system. There are two important details here: first, since the quota for Istanbul High School is 1.5 times that of Galatasaray, the scale of the preference for exiting the system is much larger than it appears; second, while the rate of Istanbul High School graduates going to universities abroad has approached 90%, it should be noted that the placement rate for universities abroad for Galatasaray, which was previously at the 5% level, has also approached 25%. In other words, it is evident that even those who prefer the Enderun School tradition are seeking their solution in exiting the system.

The departure of professionals with high added value—or, in common terms, brain drain—does not only cause Turkey to drop in the league; it also makes it impossible to move up. After all, the modernization process of countries is like swimming against the current. That is, standing still or moving slowly relative to the current leads to regression. Considering that when we subtract the processes of childhood, education, and old age, there are limited years left for a person to produce added value, the fact that highly qualified young minds plan their most productive periods outside the system turns Turkey into a "buffet of labor" for countries that have reached the level of contemporary civilization before us.

Here, a special parenthesis must be opened and a call must be made for certain professional groups that fall under the scope of public service. The loss of all health professional groups, especially doctors, who are the professional group that suffers the most injustice, causes damage that is difficult to reverse for the losing country.

It is a fact that, far from receiving the true reward for the labor our doctors have put in for years, they have been performing their duties amidst a social security gap that has been consciously created over the past quarter-century. While it is clear that opportunities are being sought to replace every doctor who leaves the country with a foreign doctor, and the number of colleagues leaving the country has skyrocketed, it is sad that no principled movement has emerged among physicians to stop their colleagues.

We cannot say that doctors, with their current level of awareness, are unaware that leaving the country pushes those who remain into darkness and that their departure is a greater loss than anyone else who leaves. According to data from Genel Sağlık-İş, while the number of Turkish doctors who have gone abroad in the last 12 years has exceeded 15 thousand, it is observed that nearly 19 thousand foreign healthcare workers have started working in Turkey with work permits between 2012 and 2020. The fact that those who settle abroad do not tend to form a Turkish diaspora shows that the break from the country is not based solely on economic foundations, but also harbors a serious resentment toward the country. In the report we prepared on brain drain during CHP İzmir Deputy Gökçe Gökçen's tenure as Vice Chair for Youth Policies, it was revealed that if a peaceful life and a dignified working environment were re-established, the qualified majority of our youth who have gone abroad would prefer to return to Turkey.

On the other hand, according to data from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), it is seen that Turkey has provided 80 billion USD in aid over the last 10 years to improve living conditions in foreign countries. We cannot be proud enough of our country, which is arid for itself but fertile for others. In my second article published on this platform, titled Anatolian Genocide, I mentioned that two hopeless generations have grown up in the last quarter-century who have received inadequate education, whose national consciousness has been dulled, and who have experienced a poor youth, and I tried to explain that these young people, who lack love and loyalty to their country, are justified. We, the born convicts of the open-air prison I mentioned in that article, must first protect our mental health until this era of interregnum ends, and we must change our reading habits and start reading not to sleep, but to wake up.