Israel Faces Brain Drain as More Educated Citizens Leave Country

(Bloomberg) -- The most educated Israelis are leaving the country in increasing numbers, according to a new study from the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research.

In 2017, 4.5 persons with an academic degree left Israel for each one who returned from abroad, with graduates from better institutions leaving at higher rates, the study found.

“While the overall emigration numbers are still relatively small when compared to Israel’s total population, the bite that they take out of the most educated segments of society – those that keep Israel a part of the developed world – is not inconsequential,” said Dan Ben-David, who heads the institution.

The U.S. is a sought-after destination for Israel’s emigrants. Between the decades of 1995-2005, and 2006-2016, the number of Israelis getting U.S. citizenship or permanent residency outpaced population growth in Israel by one-third.

The number of tenured or tenure-track Israelis in the computer science, business and economics departments at top 40 American universities were all above 20% of senior faculty in equivalent fields at Israeli universities.

Israel needs to change budget priorities to provide education and infrastructure for larger parts of the population, the study argued.

“The extent of emigration, the direction of the trend, and the direction that all of Israel – a country that needs to remain sufficiently attractive to those who are very sought after by other countries – is headed should ring alarm bells in all of the corridors that determine Israel’s national priorities,” Ben-David said.

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