Flirten met Duitsland - Sax.nu

International
Looking for job opportunities abroad or going back home?
INTERNATIONAL
‘I’m sure I’ll settle down
in my country one day’
The months of July, August and September
are the months many students finish their
studies. Many an international graduate then
faces the choice of going back home and looking
for opportunities there or staying
abroad a few years longer in order to gain
international work experience. Sax asked a
number of students about their future plans.
Back to Iran, but, if possible, not yet
Nastooh Torabi, who recently successfully
finished the Master programme
in Real Estate Management, is from
Iran. His immediate plans are to find
a job in the UK because of the many
job opportunities and the fact that
there is no language barrier for him
there. “The Netherlands would also
be great but it seems nearly impossible
for an international student to find
a decent job relevant to his education
and academic degree here.
Plan B would be going back home
or the United Arab Emirates because
it is so close to Iran and there are
lots of developments going on in
both places.”
Iranian politics and demography
The reason Nastooh prefers to stay
on in Europe a bit longer is, he
insists, not directly linked to Iranian
politics: “I love my country and I
love who I am and where I come
from. The thing is the government
of Iran is making mistakes in their
international policies and is weakening
the global standing of my
country. That has economical consequences,
like all sorts of sanctions
the country faces. No foreign investment
means economic recession,
which lowers my chance of having
the job I want. If I am not going
back to Iran, that is the only reason.
However I am still in doubt, because
if I am lucky and have the right
contacts, I can have an ideal job relevant
to my academic degree. I really
miss my country and the great
friends I have over there.”
Apart from the necessity to know
the right people there is the fact
that Iran has a very young population
of which nearly 60-70 per
cent consists of young people of
Nastooh’s age, 50 per cent of which
are academically educated. “So that
is tough competition”, he adds. “I
believe there are not enough jobs to
meet the needs of this young educated
generation. Having a master’s
degree does not guarantee you a
good job as there is even a considerable
number of people having PhD
degrees who are still unemployed.”
Trend
How unique is his decision not to go
back to find a job in Iran straight-
Photo: Auke Pluim
oktober 2007
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