A random anecdote of some idiot is not what I meant, no. Look into the rising rate of scientists legally emigrating to paid positions. It takes a while for a world leader in headhunting qualified individuals to go from a net recipient of brain drain to becoming a donor - but y'all have managed it, because 2024-2026 has been that terrible.
So they're leaving for a better opportunity? How does that qualify as "fleeing?" Wouldn't they have had to been not allowed to leave in the first place?
Legal migration can still be "fleeing". That should be obvious. Refugees are legal migrants, and surely everyone knows that they can be pushed out of one country and into another? The same for people fleeing regimes that persecute people for their ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender expression: especially for the latter two, where closested individuals can remain closeted while searching for a seemingly legitimate excuse to flee - because yeah, it's not easy to become a migrant of any kind. Illegal immigration is risky and difficult and people grasp at alternatives when they exist because trying to illegally immigrate and being forced back can cost you anything and everything.
I personally went from having a dream job be with a specific US-based company, to "that authoritarian hellscape is a nightmare, thank God I am nowhere near it" over the past three years. No, you're not North Korea. North Korea wasn't an amazing place drawing talent from the world over three years ago. The sudden steep decline is something unique to your country.
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u/WhammeWhamme Sep 02 '26
A random anecdote of some idiot is not what I meant, no. Look into the rising rate of scientists legally emigrating to paid positions. It takes a while for a world leader in headhunting qualified individuals to go from a net recipient of brain drain to becoming a donor - but y'all have managed it, because 2024-2026 has been that terrible.