A new book titled “The Skills Deficit │ Migration of Competencies: Risks, Opportunities, and Probabilities” has been published by Sotimedia Publishing. It is authored by Professor of Sociology, Dr. Abdelwahab Ben Hafidh. This book was produced in collaboration with the Forum of Social Sciences and the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies.

Is it a brain drain, a skills migration, or a talent exodus? Regardless of the contemporary terminology, the book’s engagement with the subject confirms that there is a matter warranting serious thought, if not concern. This is particularly true in the context of the health crisis and the increasing international migration of doctors. These are the introductory questions posed by the book. Spanning approximately 160 pages, it comprises six chapters and a collection of significant statistics and figures, presented in the form of tables and color graphics, intended for analysis and to address the various questions raised.

This volume can be considered a follow-up to a previous work by the sociologist Abdelwahab Ben Hafidh, published on the eve of the September 2001 attacks, titled “Le visa étudiant : objet de désir, miroir des indésirables” (The Student Visa: Object of Desire, Mirror of the Undesirables). That earlier work aimed to draw international public attention to the difficulties encountered by Tunisian, and more broadly Arab, students in their pursuits to study in Europe or North America.

This book focuses on the phenomenon known as “brain drain” and serves as an invitation to rethink the future of skills mobility, even in the absence of an “emergency or catastrophic situation.” However, the author argues that the events during the health crisis no longer merely prompt reflection but necessitate action. This is because the scale of skills migration, particularly in the health and medical sectors… is, in the author’s words, “set to witness an unprecedented rise, following the entry of numerous well-resourced and well-prepared countries into a competition for skills attraction, aimed at addressing the vulnerabilities exposed during their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

During the early days of the pandemic, news reports continually highlighted a critical shortage of intensive care physicians, alongside a lack of equipment. This deficiency was confirmed to be worryingly prevalent, especially in the country’s interior regions. Concurrently, the role of Tunisian emigrant doctors in European Union and Gulf countries was prominently featured within active care teams. Undoubtedly, some of the testimonies emerging from hospitals in Rome, Palermo, Marseille, and Paris, which circulated on social networks, led a segment of the public to persistently question: What explains the abundance of services there and their scarcity in the homeland, Tunisia? This is a country that invests in the education of these departing skills – an investment spanning from school, and perhaps pre-school, through to university, internships, and, in many cases, international study missions.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant impacts carried multiple meanings and implications. While societal responses and preparedness varied from one context to another, the crisis revealed the extent to which the effectiveness of performance and intervention is linked to the level of readiness of the skills a society possesses – a matter specifically connected to medical competencies.

The book also addresses the migration of higher education professors and engineers. Following a detailed presentation of the main migration trends and data pertaining to what the author terms the “salary gap,” the book analyzes the concept of the “skills deficit,” offering explanations linked to both “pull factors” (attraction) and “push factors.”

In conclusion, the book emphasizes the concept of “skills circulation” as the most suitable option, given the weakness of return-oriented strategies. This approach allows for benefiting from the expertise of the diaspora through short-term recruitment for specific contracts and assignments.

Furthermore, it posits that the solution lies in improving the conditions for competing internationally to attract and host skills. This necessitates not only new legislation but also, and especially, confronting the mindset that discredits the role of returning skills, as was witnessed on the eve of the 2019 elections.