Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 13 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Five percent of world's total number of immigrants are Iranians, Deputy Chairman of Supreme Council for Iranians abroad Ali Shabani said, IRNA reported.
Shabani noted that those 5 percent of Iranians are equal to 7 percent of Iranian population.
He noted that thousands of Iranians currently live in the U.S., and they've progressed a lot in spheres like IT, research and inventions.
"Those Iranian immigrants living abroad are mostly well known doctors, scientists and researchers," Shabani said, adding that these people could have been used to help boost Iran's economy.
"A lot of immigrant Iranians are patriots, and a certain amount of their money could be transfered to Iran and invested into local economy," Shabani noted.
Deputy Head of Organization for Civil Registration Mohsen Keremi said in September that the U.S. stands first among the countries, where Iranians immigrate.
Keremi said in 2011, some 1 million 400 thousand Iranians immigrated to the United States. Second comes United Arab Emirates (some 800 000 people), then UK and Canada (some 410 000 each), Germany (210 000 people), France (155 000), and Sweden (110 000 people).
Other countries include Australia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Malaysia, India and Belgium.
Many specialists from Iran leave the country looking for better life and work. In 2011 Canada became the first immigration destination for Iranian nurses with 47 percent while the UAE attracts 33 percent of immigrants.
Australia, the USA and the UK are among other major destinations with suitable conditions for Iranian nurses.
In Feb. 2012, Iranian officials said that nearly 4,000 specialists of Iran's Ministry of Oil currently work in other countries.
It was noted that Iranian specialists left Iran for outside jobs because of low salary that they were being paid in Iran. Attractive offers from other countries prompted local specialists to leave.