It is estimated that anywhere from 1.5 to three million Ethiopians have settled abroad in various levels of resident status. Although it is difficult if not impossible to obtain accurate figures, the bulk of this diaspora is in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the Levant (Israel, Lebanon, Jordan).
Society probes the dynamics of Ethiopian emigration. Is it brain drain or cultural gain?

What is your opinion about the ‘going abroad craze’ in Ethiopia?

I think emigrating is good for our country because people want to be free.They should be able to live in a country where there is freedom. Additionally, economic security is also a basic human right.
Sammy Metal Worker

We can talk all day and all night about the merits or otherwise of going abroad to settle. However, there is nothing that can be done to stop it unless a clearly authoritarian regime prohibits it or foreign consular offices stop issuing visas.
Sisay Abiy, Lecturer

There is always something useful from cultural interaction. It is in the natural order of civilization that large numbers of people move– either in mass exodus or in small family or clan units. This is how we involve into the spectrum of variety that characterizes the human race. I say, there is no need for alarm – we have too many people anyway!
Dawed Adem, Cyclist

I am not unduly alarmed when Ethiopians leave their country because they will almost always return. Of course, it will take years and even decades, but during that period, the diaspora will be sending their families financial support. After time, they will return for good and contribute to the economy by investingtheir savings.
Seblewongel, Nurse.

Rights are obligations

Don’t you just love old newspapers? I’m a confirmed and incorrigible hoarder of all things – your typical attic rat were we in the West (who has an attic in Addis?). The efficacy of my habit or what others would term my vice, was proven once again when in doing research for this article, I came upon a yellowed Addis Zemen dating back to 1962 (1954 E.C). It was not a complete issue ( what with the many uses for a newspaper. (Cut! Don’t Ramble! Ed). Anyway, the page I had in hand was by Lemma K, and dealt with emigration.
Written in exquisite Amharic, the piece lamented the “ growing attraction of other countries and the rising number of Ethiopians who desire to leave, “Lemlemitwa’ Ethiopia”. Lemma then gave us invaluable assistance when he went on to supply figures on emigration for the decade up to 1962.
“I examined the issue in detail and have managed to estimate that there are 30,000 Ethiopians in “Ferenje –Hager’. This is equal to the population of Gonder town!”
I was delighted to have obtained this item of information. Lemma K, wherever you are in this (or the other) world – thank you. Would Lemma, his contemporaries in the Ethiopia of the early 60’s (already percolating with socio-political tension until it would erupt in 1974) and any person who had read this withered fragment of newsprint imagined that in 40 years, over 1.5 million Ethiopians would have left their country? No, I think not. The emigration craze is now deeply ingrained and for too many citizens, it is the only goal they aspire to.
Although I am a believer in the right of individuals in their pursuit of happiness, the current fixation with seeking fortune overseas, come what may, has been taken too far. Among the basic human rights are the freedoms of expression, choice of occupation and habitation. These rights, though inalienable, are still dependent on that great equalizer of Democracy. The law states that every body is allowed anything as long as it does not contradict the same rule. So, if an Ethiopian wishes to live elsewhere – anywhere but Ethiopia – god speed! However, if this right is abused and the action itself starts to show the effects of the loss of human resource, then, unlimited emigration is not an inalienable right.