Afghanistan- The Young Afghan Diaspora

(MENAFN- Afghanistan Times) By Maria Hayat 

After visiting Afghanistan last summer, I could not help but
notice all of the flaws and injustices that prevailed in my home country.
Whilst I was privileged enough to visit my family, tour around Afghanistan's
notable cafes and wonder around freely in my breathtakingly beautiful village
Panjshir, I knew that I would return back by the end of the summer safely on a
plane back to the UK to carry on with my studies. Sadly, this is the case for
most Afghans who were forced to flee due to many driving factors including
conflict, insecurity, lack of job opportunities and a firm perception of a
weak/incapable government. Afghan diaspora has escalated over the years,
especially since the Afghan-Soviet war and Taliban presence, thus families gave
up their degrees, jobs and homes to seek safety elsewhere in the world and
unfortunately, some never return to Afghanistan. 

Deriving from the Greek word 'diaspeirein', the term
diaspora describes the spread of people from their homeland in different parts
of the world. Statistics from 2015 shows that Germany leads in Europe with
having 156,000 settled Afghan immigrants whilst the UK follows with 68,000 and
Iran have the most with 2.35 million. Afghan migrants seem to often form
bridges between their host country and Afghanistan by sending over remittances,
which aids the Afghan economy with positive multiplier effects. Despite this
advantage, Afghanistan is suffering from a lack of capacity of its skilled
workforce due to its doctors, engineers, and lawyers fleeing out of Afghanistan
to start a new life. 

Collier's four traps explaining poverty includes bad
governance, conflict, natural resources and landlocked with bad neighbors yet
it comes as no surprise that Afghanistan ticks all four. Indeed, with a GDP
figure of roughly $21billion, 36% of Afghanistan's population is below the
poverty line thereby 9million Afghans are currently suffering from extreme and
absolute poverty. As a result of this, the number one killer of Afghanistan is
not terrorist attacks or conflict; it is in fact the thriving monster called
poverty. The underlying cause for the poverty rates remaining stagnant is
corruption, as Afghanistan is the fourth most corrupt country after South Sudan
and Syria. Unfortunately, mismanaged funds are a grave problem and it is
assisting in Afghanistan becoming a cesspool for corruption as the Economist
Moyo calls it 'dead aid'. The combination of the government's myopia in
Afghanistan's fatal problems and self-interests has meant that billions of
dollars of aid have gone straight to pockets instead of reaching those in
desperate need.

Regardless of all of the tragic problems that Afghanistan
faces, I strongly believe that the emerging skillful diaspora have the duty to
fill the capacity gaps with their expertise and experience upon their return to
their homeland. After coming across the Instagram page @afghanmillenials, I was
bursting with both pride and sadness as the page highlights the successes of
the Afghan diaspora around the world. Whilst I was scrolling through the
colourful page of successful young Afghans and their achievements, I came
across a few individuals such as Mujib Mashal (a well-known journalist for the
New York Times), May Homira Rezai (a medical student and leading researcher)
and Omar Popal, an entrepreneur in America who owns prominent restaurant
chains, I felt extremely proud of Afghans flourishing in their fields yet I
felt a deep sadness that all of this was taking place outside of Afghanistan.
Evidently, the Afghan diaspora is becoming increasingly prosperous however the
poor farmers in a remote village of Nuristan will never taste Omar Popal's
restaurants or aspiring journalists in Kabul will never be able to gain top
advice from Mujib Mashal. Ergo, it goes without a shadow of a doubt to say that
the skillful diaspora ought to return to Afghanistan to help their homeland
country to grow socially and economically, allowing for the spillover and
trickledown effect to take place effectively.

Last summer, I had the honor of being able to shadow the
late journalist, Samim Faramaz from TOLOnews whilst he was out on the field as
I witnessed him methodically prepare a news package about the Government's
false statements on the Ghazni attacks. Sadly, Samim died just weeks after I
was lucky enough to meet him, in a barbaric double suicide attack whilst he was
reporting. Samim was one of the few Afghanistan's true heroes who chose to stay
in Afghanistan rather than fleeing as he took great pride in his work in
contributing to Afghanistan's development through quality journalism. I am
eternally grateful for meeting Samim, as he made me realise that whilst I am
part of the Afghan diaspora, there are individuals like Samim who have chosen
to stay and improve Afghanistan, even if it entails putting their life on the
line. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this piece to Samim for being a role
model to me and hopefully for the rest of young diaspora to return back to
Afghanistan one day. 

I plan on returning to Afghanistan indefinitely in the
future with my skills and knowledge after I become a practicing lawyer here in
the UK but with a lack of security and unstable government, I am deterred from
returning just like the rest of the Afghan diaspora. Ultimately, the Afghan
government has the role to incentivise the Afghan diaspora to return to their
country and use their capacity for a better Afghanistan. Indeed, before coming
up with suggestions for the government, it is vital for the main causes of the
diaspora to be eradicated. This means that the government needs to prioritise
security first and foremost so that the young diaspora feels safe enough to
come back to settle and invest both their money and time in Afghanistan. 

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