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Seminar "Migration studies". Demintseva E., Kashnitsky D., Oparin D. “Emigration of highly qualified professionals from Russia in the 2010s: why are they leaving Russia today?”

On January 31, 2019 was held a session of the regular seminar "Migration studies" organized by the Higher School of Economics the Institute of Social Policy. Ekaterina Demintseva(Higher School of Economics Institute of Social Policy), Daniel Kashnitsky (Higher School of Economics Institute of Social Policy), Dmitriy Oparin (MSU, Higher School of Economics Institute of Social Policy) presented their recent research“Emigration of highly qualified professionals from Russia in the 2010s:why are they leaving Russia today?”

The problem of emigration of qualified and highly qualified specialists, the so-called brain drain, became relevant for Russia in the post-Soviet years. Despite the fact that this process has a long post-Soviet history (about 25 years), the reasons for emigration are changing. In the 2010s, we can talk about a new wave of emigration from Russia. Emigration in recent years has become diverse. Young researchers, businessmen, journalists, human rights activists are leaving the country.

The goal of the project, that will be presented at the seminar, was to understand the reasons for the departure of specialists from Russia in recent years (from 2010 to 2017), their career development and life trajectories abroad, whether they are considering future opportunities for returning to their homeland. We also aimed to understand why professionals who worked or studied abroad are returning to Russia. One of the main objectives of the study was to classify the diversity of the causes and forms of transnational migration of highly qualified Russian specialists. More than 100 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Russian emigrants from various professional fields were conducted - academics, creative professionals, journalists, entrepreneurs, as well as interviews with those who in recent years returned to Russia.

Discussant: Youlia Florinskaya (RANEPA)