North Africa: Nearly Everyone Wants to Leave

When there is no faith in the collective project of building a nation anymore, the result is decay, collapse, and misery.

A.A.K. was twenty seven years old when he killed himself. He was back from Tunis to his hometown Bizerte 60km to the north. No one knows for sure what contributed the most, what was the ultimate trigger for him to go for it. But a girl involved? Yes there was one, and player for sure based on what a witness told me. Debt and career problems? Yes. There is another factor: He was rejected a short-term Schengen Visa to France three times in a row.

Visa lines and hard immigration policies towards North Africans have made it harder for them to cross the Mediterranean legally.

I know some people who paid more than the cost of a cruise trip, the equivalent of thousands of Euros, just to get a human trafficker to smuggle them to Southern Europe.

In North Africa leaving and emigrating to Europe has become the ultimate dream for everyone that if you don’t do it then you are deemed a failure.There is pressure for sure. Pressure on young people from parents and society. Pressure to perform. Pressure to climb the socioeconomic ladder. Pressure, pressure, pressure..

In North Africa leaving and emigrating to Europe has become the ultimate dream for everyone that if you don’t do it then you are deemed a failure.

Millions of students have their main purpose to get a diploma and “leave for Europe”. I just went out to a local restaurant and everyone there—the cook, the waiters, and the managers—is fed up and trying to save the 7k dinars for their trip. Others make it by paying 10k dinars and get to Europe in a small yacht.

What’s happening is that this region is not only experiencing a brain drain, but a human capital drain. That’s what happens when everyone loses faith in the collective project of a shared land, history, and values—a nation.