Half of Russian scientists want to emigrate
According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which involved 24,000 respondents from Russia, including both specialists and recruiters , Russia remains unable to compete for talent in the world market, and the majority of professionals in the scientific and high-tech sectors feel they would be better off working abroad.
The desire to work abroad was expressed by 50% of Russian scientists, 52% of senior managers, and 54% of IT specialists. 49% of engineering specialists and 46% of doctors would be willing to join them.
Nearly two thirds of the potential emigrants (65%) are the “digital talents”, the BCG observes: artificial intelligence specialists, scrum masters, user interface designers etc. 57% of them are young people under 30 years of age.
Among developing countries, Russian specialists show a definite preference for Germany: 11.84% of emigrants go to Germany. 7.25% leave Russia for Israel, and 2.07% go to Switzerland. France, the US, Belgium and the UK each receive 1.2-1.5% of the emigrants.
Those who have left for Western Europe typically do not wish to return – only 6% of the emigrants would be willing to work in Russia again if they received such an offer.
Respondents cited the following as reasons for leaving: higher pay, gaining work experience, a better quality of life, and expanding career opportunities.
The top 10 factors also included “economic instability in the homeland” and the “higher quality of state services” abroad in healthcare, education and childcare.
As compared to 2014, Russia has risen 5 places in the rankings for attractiveness to specialists (to 25th place). But this result is a reflection of the migration from CIS countries, where the career opportunities and the quality of life are inferior to those in Russia, commented Alexander Shudey, director of the BCG’s Moscow office.
Neither Russia as a whole nor Moscow in particular can compete for talent in the world market, Shudey says: “the very best specialists want to go abroad, expecting to improve their career prospects and quality of life,” which “could create difficulties for companies and for the country as a whole within the context of the digital transformation of the economy”.
According to RANEPA statistics, every year 100,000 Russians leave the country to go to developed countries. This figure is based on the statistics of the recipient countries, and is almost 7 times larger than the official figure from the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (15,500 per year).
One third of the emigrants leave in order to pursue postgraduate studies abroad. Roughly one quarter go to work, and out of them 50% receive a Blue Card which entitles them to work as qualified specialists.