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EYEING POTENTIAL
Against the flood of Egyptian youth risking everything for a chance to live and work overseas is a trickle of bright young Egyptians who have lived abroad most of their life, but have returned to Egypt to start their career. With them comes fresh thinking, valuable insights, and the desire to play a positive role in their country's development.
BY RÉHAB EL-BAKRY
Like a lot of developing countries, Egypt has fallen prey to the brain drain as many of its best and brightest, frustrated by unemployment and tempted by financial offers abroad, have emigrated. And many have found success. Egyptians such as world-renowned heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub, award-winning film director Youssef Chahine and Nobel Prize winner Ahmed Zewail have demonstrated that when given the right environment, Egyptians can achieve great things.
But against this flow, and a wave of young Egyptians risking their lives for the chance to work in Europe, are a handful of youth who have spent most of their life outside the country, yet made the decision to come back to Egypt to start their career. This isn't simply about patriotism, or homesickness, they say. It is about seeing opportunities, whether the reward is professional growth or the personal satisfaction that comes with making a difference.
"'What made you come back?' It's the first question I get asked," jokes Rami El-Adly, a 27-year-old communication executive at MS&L Public Relations. "They say it with a tone of disbelief in their voices, like I lost my mind. But, honestly, making the decision to come back has been very good for me, and looking back, I'd make the same decision again."
An Egyptian by birth, El-Adly was raised in Kuwait. Upon completing high school, he wanted to get back to his roots, so enrolled at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where he majored in integrated marketing communication. During his time at the university, he began to get a feel for the country - its problems, its economy and its inner workings. What drew his attention most were the positive changes taking place in the early 2000s as sectors previously neglected in the market suddenly began to develop. Among these was the field in which he wanted to work, public relations.
"My family had lived their entire lives abroad and up until that point, I had too," he says. "But when it came time for me to decide where I wanted to start my life, it wasn't Kuwait. I grew up there all my life, and I have family and friends there, but there was nothing of the sense of belonging I felt when I came here. It was this sense that I am home, even though I had only lived here for four years at this point."
A sense of belonging
Khaled El Mikaty, chairman of the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJBA), explains that it is not surprising that Egyptians, even those who grew up abroad, have a sense of belonging to Egypt, regardless of the challenges. "It's one of those things that is so characteristic of us [Egyptians]; we love this country," he says. "So it's normal that people who have had more opportunities become active not just on the professional level in order to support the economy, but... active in the community itself in order for change to take place."
He notes that as the Egyptian economy has grown and changed over the past decade, young people with the right qualifications have been able to penetrate that job market and advance faster than ever before. "There is an entire generation of [businesspeople] in Egypt who are very good at their jobs and are very successful in fields that were previously unheard of," he says. Their creativity and energy helps them quickly move up the ladder while developing their company and sector.
Egyptians who have lived abroad then return bring invaluable experience that can help support the development of the nation's economy, he says. They are the ones who will push for growth. "If every single person who had advantages growing up, whether internationally or domestically, packed up and left, the country would fall further behind on the economic and social fronts alike," he says. "It's the responsibility of those who had all the [advantages] to provide more support, because those are the people who drive change."
This is particularly true of youth because they have the ingredients for change, he says. "They have the ability to [dream] things up; and they also have the energy to find ways to implement them, either by joining forces with their friends or colleagues or by joining professional associations."
And that would describe Deena Fadel, a 25-year-old graphic designer born and raised for the better part of her life in the United Kingdom. Fadel moved back to Egypt with her family in 2000. Although she had never lived in Egypt up until this point, she had many reasons for wanting to be here, but mostly a sense of belonging. "I wanted to explore the country that I was originally from," she says. "Being brought up in the UK, when you get older, you begin to realize the differences in culture and religious beliefs; [things that] when you're a kid it's hard to really notice... but at a later age, you begin to realize that there are differences."
At the AUC, she began to realize that there was so much potential in Egypt, if you only knew where to look. What most people perceived as signs of the country falling behind in development, she saw as opportunities for growth and challenges that could be overcome if only people tried rather than complained. "I am one of those people who believe that it's all about your perception and disposition," says Fadel, now working as a graphic designer at Advantage Advertising. "There are a lot of problems with Egypt and that's a fact. The key for me is that I always see these as opportunities that can be fixed rather than problems that you should just turn your back on. All it takes is to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty."
It's all about who you know
Fadi Gwanny, 28, spent his entire life in Dubai, where he built a name for himself as one Dubai's top photographers, with a portfolio including almost every high-profile client in the UAE. By 2006, he believed that he had reached the top of his game in a market that was becoming increasingly competitive. "On the other hand, there was Egypt, where there are only a handful of professional photographers and most of them had no formal education in photography and were just learning it as they went along. So I knew that there was so much potential for me."
But upon returning to Egypt he was at a severe disadvantage as he had no contacts - which are all important in his line of business. Gwanny, however, quickly found his way. He tapped into the wedding circuit. "I started off by photographing weddings in a way that was very different to how they're done here in Egypt," he says. "It's amazing how many people you meet at weddings."
Gwanny took the media skills he gained in Dubai and applied them to weddings here, offering an entirely new style of photography: weddings, photojournalism style. "I document the whole day. I charge by the hour and I don't provide them with prints," he explains. "Initially, people were not convinced, but once they saw the product, word got out. In just two years, I've gained hundreds of clients, many of whom later recommended me to their companies for commercial shoots. So what I lacked in contacts, I made up in weddings."
For El-Adly, who knew almost nobody when he arrived in Egypt, a blank contact sheet posed a problem when he went looking for a job. "I don't mean it in the negative sense, but people do things for one another here," he explains. "People usually have this close-knit circle of friends and when someone needs a job, a telephone number or even favor, someone always knows someone, who knows someone that will help you get the job done. This is one of the ways business and life here works."
After college graduation, it took El-Adly several months to find a job. Unlike friends who had grown up here, he didn't have the contacts to help him find a job. Eventually, PR firm MS&L offered him an internship, which later became a full-time job. "Despite the fact that it took me a while to find a job, I still didn't want to move back to Kuwait even though I knew it would be so easy for me to find a million jobs. I wanted to be here, in Egypt. But now, my contacts [here] are everything."
Fadel argues that part of the problem in Egypt is that people depend too much on their family and their connections to get things done. Too many people wait around for things to happen for them rather than making them happen. "When I first came here, I wanted to work when I was still in school and I didn't realize that people here [expect] their family and friends to find them jobs. In the UK, you just pick up the phone book and you call businesses and ask them if they are hiring. That's what I did... My employer was completely shocked that I did that, [but] it worked."
The khawaga complex
Being brought up abroad can open doors, Fadel admits. Egyptians suffer from what is popularly known as the khawaga complex, a deep-rooted belief that anything foreign is better than anything local. This is true of products, services and even people. Many companies, particularly local ones, believe a foreigner will do a job better than a local hire, even if the local hire is more qualified. It is often assumed that some of these desired western qualities have rubbed off on Egyptians raised abroad, increasing their perceived value.
"Being born and raised in the UK definitely opens doors," chuckles Fadel. "That complex still exists, which I find very funny. The notion that because someone is foreign they'll get things right is so obsolete in my view because [foreigners] simply don't have the same feeling of belonging to the company or the country that a local would have. A foreigner comes in for a few months and does a job, but eventually moves on to another company in another country. We are the ones who stay and we are the ones who care if the company succeeds or fails, because it's our success or failure. But businesses don't always get that."
The problem, as El-Adly sees it, is that traditionally there were so many sectors and jobs for which locals simply didn't have the qualifications or training. But this has changed. "Right now, we have a lot of people who can do these jobs either because they worked abroad or because they have been trained by foreigners," he says. "As they gain more experience, they will perform their jobs better and they will be able to train others as well. Some companies are already beginning to see this."
Fadel is much more skeptical. She says the khawaga complex is not just limited to employers. She also sees it with clients. "There are those clients who still believe that if they hire a multinational advertising agency, they will receive better quality work, whereas internationally, local companies are in. They have a strong understanding of the market, their staff is dedicated and the company [management] is dedicated, because they don't have an international name to depend on. If they make it, it will be because they have the will to succeed."
Gwanny points out that this trend is not just in Egypt. When he worked in Dubai, he was the only Arab professional photographer to make it big. He said that all Arabs still have this belief ingrained in their minds. "This is a deep-rooted insecurity of sorts, or lack of faith. It's not just about Egypt. It's common throughout the region."
Culture shock
For Egyptian youth returning to Egypt after living abroad most of their lives, the transition is not easy. Despite having Egyptian parents, and having visited Cairo as children, Adly, Fadel and Gwanny all admit that moving to Egypt was - in their words - "a culture shock." There's noise, traffic and pollution to deal with, for starters. "Moving back is not for everyone," Fadel admits. "If you are going to be the type that gets frustrated over everything, you're really not going to be able to adjust, ever. So you [just have to] accept certain things as fact."
But other things are not as easy to deal with, such as the lack of work systems and bureaucracy. "It's ironic," remarks El-Adly. "The government has so much bureaucracy that it drives most people crazy on one hand, and then often in private companies you will find no systems whatsoever. There is no happy medium."
The bureaucracy in the public sector and disorganization in the private sector often result in inefficiencies that cause the simplest of tasks to take days or even weeks to complete. El-Adly explains that simple things like a back-up system or a clear division of labor to avoid the duplication of effort are, for many companies, alien concepts.
Gwanny also complains of the lack of organization in Egypt, which he says makes it more challenging to get things done properly and on schedule. While working in Dubai, his clients would give him a proper briefing for what they needed. They also understood the idea of location scouting and lighting - basics his Egyptian clients usually have never heard of. "I was the official photographer for the Cairo International Film Festival last year. My brief included two things: the date and the location. They never told me what photos they needed, what they were supposed to look like or even what was going on for me to photograph. There was no security clearance, so I couldn't access the red carpet - and I was their official photographer!"
By contrast, when he used to go on assignments in Dubai, he would have three pre-shoot meetings with the organizers, and visit the locations ahead of time to assess the lighting at various times of day.
The lack of organization is just another symptom of poor management, argues Fadel, who says Egyptian managers often adopt a divide-and-conquer approach to management, which pits colleagues against one another, creating unhealthy work environments. "When someone does something well, they get all the praise, the promotions and the raises. But if they go through a rough patch a few months later, it's like they've done nothing at all," she says. "One of the things that makes me like the company I work with now is the fact that they work on involving everyone at different stages of projects, which makes it a healthy environment. But I know this is the exception and not the rule."
It is also one of the factors that makes Fadel want to remain with the company. "At a previous job, I got promoted and someone who had been there for longer than me felt that she should have been promoted instead. So one evening she just deleted the entire database that I had been working on just to harm me." While these issues are not unique to Egypt, they are accentuated by companies that lack organization. Therefore, it is not uncommon for people who find good work environments to dig in for the long-haul.
Should I stay or should I go?
Make no mistake. All three of these young professionals have their days when the frustration makes them reconsider their decision to return to Egypt. The high inflation of the past few years has really put their resilience to the test. Life in Egypt is becoming more and more expensive while salaries are not increasing proportionately, they say.
As El-Adly puts it, the temptations of better salaries and easier lives are just as tempting for him as they are for all other young professionals who leave Egypt to work abroad. "Prices of things are increasing so fast and salaries are not increasing equally. The amount I used to spend on food a couple of years ago, now covers only half of it. And if you have a wife and kids, you do have to ask yourself 'should I stay or should I go?' Thankfully, I am not at this point yet."
Money continues to be one of the biggest incentives for accepting jobs abroad, especially in the Gulf where professionals with the right qualifications can easily get twice their salary. While this might tempt some, Gwanny says money shouldn't be everything. "If you work and contribute to a country like [United Arab Emirates] all your life, and you get sick or you lose your job, they throw you out; that's the reality. You have few rights and too many bills to pay," he says. "At least here, you are in your country. You've got relatives and friends who will take care of you when things go wrong. Even your employer will take care of you for a while. But outside, you're only as good as the money you're making for others."
Fadel, on the other hand, doesn't dismiss the idea of working abroad for a bit, but only to learn how different markets work so she can apply those skills in Egypt. She believes gaining international experience is an asset in any field because it increases creativity and exposes people to the way things are done abroad.
"I would consider working in the UK for a bit, but with the intention of coming back to Egypt," she says. "It has to do with a genuine belief that the market will grow and change. And by being here, I am part of this change. It might be slow or frustrating, but I know it will happen. I want to be part of this change and see the growth of Egypt through."
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