In one decade only, more than 800,000 Venezuelans, mostly young people, have left the country going in quest of new projects of living, shooed by insecurity, violence, unemployment, low wages and lack of opportunities.

The news was given by Iván de la Vega, a professor with Simón Bolívar University who has conducted several studies about brain-drain.

"Violence and lack of opportunities corner Venezuelan youngsters," the scholar said in a session called "Solutions for people who organize citizens for unity."

Venezuela used to be an immigration country. However, such a situation changed in the nineties and worsened after the events of 2002-2003, De la Vega said.

"At this time, the horizon is dire. We have not only brain-drain and flight of selected human resources (…) but also the probes conducted by us show that 72 percent of students cherish the idea of leaving the country," De la Vega lamented.

Presently, there are 260,000 Venezuelan residents in the United States; 30,000 in Canada; 10,000 in Australia and approximately 200,000 in Europe. The last number is underestimated, as many children of European immigrants have dual citizenship.