L&FMike Boutros, 30, is a consultant in Beirut.
His testimony is part of our series on Being a young Lebanese in 2020, highlighting your dreams and preoccupations in these crazy times we are living.
”I don’t see a future for myself in this country. I actually don’t see a future for this country. I intend to leave as soon as I can. A part of me is still hoping for a miracle though. But seriously, how do you plan to remove corruption in the most corrupt country in the world? I feel that’s an impossible task.
So why do we continue to fight? When I ask my friends who hold foreign passports why they are still here, in Lebanon, they tell me that as long as they have the option to leave in case of emergency, they still prefer to live here, even without the basics. Isn’t it proof that there is something amazing here?
I always ask myself what and why?? Maybe it’s my memories. After all, Lebanon is home. It’s here that I experienced my first crush, I have my childhood friends, my college friends. This country is somehow a part of myself. I guess that we all have parts of us here, and that’s why we struggle to leave.”
Mike is not the only one who dreams of leaving the country.
In 2019, 66,000 Lebanese migrated, so twice as much as in 2018 (source: Commerce du Levant)