Previously on Kurning Cultures.

The brain drain is a controversial topic because some people say,

oh come on, there are so many, you know, educated Egyptians,

highly skilled Egyptians in Egypt,

and we're such a big population that there's not such a big difference.

Other people say no, actually the effect that they're leaving has on Egypt is still profound.

When you leave a country to go to work to another country, it's actually a big calculation.

It's not only about, okay, I'm having a good business opportunity somewhere, I'll get good money, and it is different.

People who decide to stay are really strong and really brave.

And people like us or me are not brave enough or not strong enough to go back anymore.

So if you sign yourself up to go back to Egypt, you're signing yourself up for a big fight.

We live in a modern world of constant migration. People leave countries, enter countries,

leave countries again, and it's becoming easier to pick up and leave a place that is deemed too tough to live in.

As we heard in our first chapter, Egypt is rising on that list of places and

tops the ranking of Middle Eastern countries for the one with the highest rate of emigration,

as in people voluntarily leaving Egypt to live elsewhere. And this high ranking is understandable,

too. There's corruption, serious poverty, congestion, problems in infrastructure, political uncertainties.

When I speak with many Egyptians, it almost seems like the country is too far gone.

I think you're being born in Egyptian is really a very unfortunate thing.

Everybody's leaving.

So it's either everybody has left or is trying or fail to get a chance to leave.

It's really hard to live there. Like in Egypt now getting your kid in school is almost every

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