The Cost of Elitism and Xenocentrism: How Biases Are Draining Pakistan's Potential

Introduction:

Have you ever observed companies in Pakistan favouring graduates from specific universities over others, even at the expense of merit? This phenomenon, commonly referred to as elitism, is pervasive in our society. Similarly, another harsh reality is if you graduate from foreign university, no matter how it is, you are more likely to land a job than a talented person. What is elitism and Xenocentrism and how is it affecting our society and cause of brain drain in Pakistan.?

What is Xenocentrism and Elitism:?

Xenocentrism is actually a mindset of a nation or a group of people to think that a specific culture, products and resources are superior to ours. For example, people in our country prefer to buy imported products rather than the nation's own. They feel proud of it. Similarly, for a job, certain big joints to mid level companies prefer hiring foreign graduates. They assume that the candidates from foreign universities are more likely to deliver, which is far from the truth. Talent is not linked to any organization rather the ideas one has. In government jobs, the ads are often showing the mentality of our elite ruling class where it is clearly written as “Foreign graduates are preferred for this Job”. Similarly, in elitism, candidates are preferred from specific universities to be onboarded for any role in private and Govt. sector.? In conclusion, xenocentrism and elitism undermines local talent and innovation by fostering an unwarranted bias towards foreign cultures and qualifications, ultimately hindering the growth and confidence of a nation's own resources.??

Cause:

Colonial Mentality: Old feudal mentality was replaced by colonial mentality in Pakistan. The English who came here looted our wealth, giving us an inferior trauma. They used to treat our forefathers as uncivilized people. They had white skin, white horses and power. They were called ‘’Sahib’’ meaning Owner. In this process, they were thought to be superior to us. Same colonial mentality is inherited from our previous generation. The worst situation is at incline making us the worst nation.?

Worst Education System: The education system of Pakistan is outdated and lacks practical knowledge. In this scenario, students are more relaxed as the education system has made them so. The mentors with low salaries prefer to educate them less. The PPT Slides in class make them duffers with low or no knowledge at all. Even so, the students do not read books other than slides or textbooks.?

Brain Drain: Those talented people not encouraged by their own people migrate to other countries on scholarships as those host countries are in a continuous hunt of talent regardless of what universities they are from. Only duffers in the parent country serving the nation.?

Consequences:?

Xenocentrism and Elitism cause severe repercussions. As of June 12, 2024, there were 4.5 million unemployed people in Pakistan. They are not contributing to the economy of Pakistan as they never get a chance at a fair job. There are 38 million people in Pakistan who are beggars. Imagine the cursed nation got independence to become an ideal state for the world.

1. Increase in poverty
2. Unemployment
3. Further brain drain
4. Less ideas with less business?

Solution:?

Ruling class itself is feudal and has a colonial mentality. This won’t change unless the nation itself has to change its situation. Corporate and Public sectors need changes in their structures. Let talented people contribute to the economy by giving them a chance to express their ideas and talent. How a foreign country onboard talent from our country and not us?