Migration out of the Kurdistan Region has drastically increased in recent years. More than 150,000 people have moved abroad in the past eight or nine years, “34,000 of them from the Raparin area,” Bakir Ali, head of the European Returning Migrants Association, said during Rudaw’s special election program 100 Kursi (100 seats).
Mayser Niheli, a candidate for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said 50,000 students graduate from universities annually and changes in programs of study could curb migration. Universities “need to revise their programs and curricula to ensure they align with the market's needs, so that university graduates don't have to worry about finding a job," he said.
Every year, tens of thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region take perilous routes out of the country towards Europe in the hope of escaping endless crises in the country, including a lack of employment, political instability, and corruption.
Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region left the country in 2023 and at least nine of them lost their lives on dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to the Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
Hemin Mohammed, a candidate from the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), said that Kurdistan Region’s youth have become hopeless.
“We have helped the youth with philanthropic projects. We see the youth have been made hopeless. If social justice is upheld, we can create more job opportunities and prevent youth migration,” he said.
Balen Abdullah, a candidate for the Kurdistan Toilers Party, said the main factor behind the migration of the youth is the public sector hiring freeze, an austerity measure introduced a decade ago.
“Tens of employees retire annually and they are not replaced in a just manner,” he said.
The government is the largest employer in the Kurdistan Region.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) candidate, Parez Omar, said the presence of foreign workers in the Kurdistan Region is one of the factors behind the crisis. “Bringing in foreign labor, the high salaries of foreign workers compared to local workers, some of the factories do not employ locals, and lack of retirement opportunities in the private sector is causing a problem for the youth,” he said.
