More than 15% of Russian citizens who left the country after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict returned from abroad, writes the Financial Times, citing data from the European University Institute.
Participants in surveys conducted after the start of the crisis were predominantly educated citizens with an active political position. Compared to the general population of Russia, they are relatively young, the study authors note. After leaving the country, many of them faced a decline in their quality of life and difficulties finding employment.
“This is definitely not an economic migration in the classical sense. “These are people who were very competent specialists in Russia and are now losing money and status,” the publication quotes one of the authors of the study, Ivetta Sergeeva.
At the same time, Russian authorities were able to maintain a “semblance of normal life” despite increasing sanctions. One of the former relocatees, Yegor Gazarov, who has since returned to Russia, told the Financial Times that he left for Armenia a week after the start of hostilities.
He planned to wait until the situation returned to normal and at the same time look for career opportunities in the West or the Middle East.
Gazarov has an MBA from Insead University in Paris and spent the first 10 years of his career at Boston Consulting Group and Procter & Gamble. But less than six months after leaving Russia, he decided to return due to work problems.
According to Forbes, citing experts, more than 820,000 people have left the country since February 2022. However, researchers note that many of them could return.
Since February 2022, Russia has faced two waves of relocations. The first stage occurred in the spring of 2022, the second wave began with the announcement of partial mobilization in the country for deployment to the combat zone last September.
A significant portion of those who left are IT specialists, which has led to a shortage of these workers in the labor market. Last fall, the Ministry of Digital Development announced its intention to return some qualified personnel, but in the summer, the head of the department, Maksut Shadayev, said that the programmers would return alone.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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