Half of Turkish youth want to go abroad, says top pollster

Duvar English

The percentage of Turkish young people who want to go abroad has increased from 28 percent in March 2010 to 48 percent in November 2020, KONDA Research Company General Manager Bekir Ağırdır wrote in an opinion piece for the weekly newspaper Oksijen.

He also gave the statistics for the general population, saying the percentage of Turks who would migrate abroad if they had a chance increased from 24 percent in March 2010 to 35 percent in November 2020.

He said that the reason behind the brain drain is now different than in previous years, as it used to be the “prospects” offered by other countries that had motivated Turks to go abroad, whereas now people are migrating “due to hopelessness” in Turkey.

Ağırdır emphasized that well-educated Turks with already good careers have been migrating abroad now. “Rather than going to a prospect, it is the feeling of fleeing from hopelessness that is dominant [now]. The perception that their realm of freedom has been restricted, their lifestyles are under threat is high. The feeling that they cannot breathe under the country's current circumstances is dominant,” Ağırdır wrote.

He said that many Turks can no longer “feel that they exist in the country's future and that they can actualize their demands and hopes.” “It is the feeling of hopelessness and a deep concern for the country's future that is dominant,” he wrote.