> **More than Half of Russia’s IT Students Want to Leave the Country**
> Many Russians have been alarmed that polls show more than one in five of their countrymen want to move abroad, but they should be even more alarmed that 53 percent of students being trained in information technology, a key to the development of a modern economy, say that that is their goal as well.
> That is the finding of a survey of more than 5,000 Russian IT students carried out by Geek Brains and reported by the RBC media portal (rbc.ru/technology_and_media/19/11/2021/61966d549a7947d03a054ebb and sibreal.org/a/polovina-studentov-it-spetsialnostey-hotyat-uehat-iz-rossii/31569153.html).
> A quarter of the Russian students say they would like to emigrate to the US, five to seven percent say they would like to go to Great Britain, Germany or Canada, and 23 precent to other countries, while a third of those questioned said they could not specify where they wanted to go except that it would be outside of the Russian Federation.
> They want to leave even though salaries in this sector have been rising in Russia to an average of 120,000 rubles (1700 US dollars) a month as Moscow seeks to reduce its shortage of IT professionals, a shortage some experts say is growing at the rate of 500,000 to one million a year.
> More money alone will not be enough to hold these IT specialists. Thirty-five percent told GeekBrains that life is generally better abroad, 17 percent said they would have more opportunities in other countries, and – especially significantly – 19 percent of those who want to leave said they wanted to rejoin relatives and friends who have already left.
> That last figure suggests that this desire to leave is more intense than many sometimes assume, with pro-regime commentators inevitably suggesting that many may dream of leaving but few if any actually are planning to leave Russia. In this critical high tech area, such suggestions may not be the case.
More than Half of Russias babushkas want that Kyiv became Russian
I’d want to leave Russia too if Putin’s regime kept all citizens me included under 24/7 surveillance with risk of getting jailed/poisoned/killed for speaking against the regime…
And then later they would realise that they could earn and live better in Russia than somewhere in Western Europe being taxed into oblivion (of course, there is always the US but who wants to live there long term?).
I personally would go back to Russia if it wasn’t difficult there for people like me. I only hope that maybe one day it’ll improve.
… and recruiters are wet after reading this.
As someone who moved to Russia, I like Russia and there is still hope there because Russia is such a potential place (apart from Pootin and Russian extreme nationalist politicians of course). Many IT people I’ve heard of often move to Estonia but I don’t know why there tho (maybe have less language barrier than western countries).
This statistic is par for the course. Something like 60% of Canadian software developers move countries.
Happens, when your country is only capable of moving tanks here and there alongside the border and threatening other countries with war.
I feel them, but at some point when you start earning enough and not less than what you possibly could get in lets say Germany, then you think twice of emigrating. Yeah you think a lot about politics in 20s but after some time other aspects come to life so you understand that it is possible to live well almost in all countries if you have money. Maybe the war or revolution can be significant reasons to push such developers out of Russia.
They better pay
A lot of people are going into IT just to have easily convertible skills (skills that can be easily used in another country).
And we should let them. Russia doesn’t need to lose hundreds of thousands in a war to suffer. We could achieve the same, or worse damage, by simply making it easier for the best of them to settle in the West.
People are always drawn to where it is easier to live and more money.
One cannot imagine how Russia has changed starting from 2014 or a little bit earlier. It was not a paradise before but there were significant amount of decent things, and opportunities to be seen. It is crazy. Especially when you come after some 1-2 year gaps. It is just painful to see the news and hear the official discourses. When I am there, I am just thinking that yes, there is an ‘asymum seeking’ thing in the international law, different kind of protection for different reasons but what about the mental/psychological suffering of propaganda/ridiculous laws/the horror claims around. It is just unbearable for me, and I am not living there permanently anymore.
14 comments
> **More than Half of Russia’s IT Students Want to Leave the Country**
> Many Russians have been alarmed that polls show more than one in five of their countrymen want to move abroad, but they should be even more alarmed that 53 percent of students being trained in information technology, a key to the development of a modern economy, say that that is their goal as well.
> That is the finding of a survey of more than 5,000 Russian IT students carried out by Geek Brains and reported by the RBC media portal (rbc.ru/technology_and_media/19/11/2021/61966d549a7947d03a054ebb and sibreal.org/a/polovina-studentov-it-spetsialnostey-hotyat-uehat-iz-rossii/31569153.html).
> A quarter of the Russian students say they would like to emigrate to the US, five to seven percent say they would like to go to Great Britain, Germany or Canada, and 23 precent to other countries, while a third of those questioned said they could not specify where they wanted to go except that it would be outside of the Russian Federation.
> They want to leave even though salaries in this sector have been rising in Russia to an average of 120,000 rubles (1700 US dollars) a month as Moscow seeks to reduce its shortage of IT professionals, a shortage some experts say is growing at the rate of 500,000 to one million a year.
> More money alone will not be enough to hold these IT specialists. Thirty-five percent told GeekBrains that life is generally better abroad, 17 percent said they would have more opportunities in other countries, and – especially significantly – 19 percent of those who want to leave said they wanted to rejoin relatives and friends who have already left.
> That last figure suggests that this desire to leave is more intense than many sometimes assume, with pro-regime commentators inevitably suggesting that many may dream of leaving but few if any actually are planning to leave Russia. In this critical high tech area, such suggestions may not be the case.
https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/01/more-than-half-of-russias-it-students.html
Translated excerpts by Paul Goble.
More than Half of Russias babushkas want that Kyiv became Russian
I’d want to leave Russia too if Putin’s regime kept all citizens me included under 24/7 surveillance with risk of getting jailed/poisoned/killed for speaking against the regime…
And then later they would realise that they could earn and live better in Russia than somewhere in Western Europe being taxed into oblivion (of course, there is always the US but who wants to live there long term?).
I personally would go back to Russia if it wasn’t difficult there for people like me. I only hope that maybe one day it’ll improve.
… and recruiters are wet after reading this.
As someone who moved to Russia, I like Russia and there is still hope there because Russia is such a potential place (apart from Pootin and Russian extreme nationalist politicians of course). Many IT people I’ve heard of often move to Estonia but I don’t know why there tho (maybe have less language barrier than western countries).
This statistic is par for the course. Something like 60% of Canadian software developers move countries.
Happens, when your country is only capable of moving tanks here and there alongside the border and threatening other countries with war.
I feel them, but at some point when you start earning enough and not less than what you possibly could get in lets say Germany, then you think twice of emigrating. Yeah you think a lot about politics in 20s but after some time other aspects come to life so you understand that it is possible to live well almost in all countries if you have money. Maybe the war or revolution can be significant reasons to push such developers out of Russia.
They better pay
A lot of people are going into IT just to have easily convertible skills (skills that can be easily used in another country).
And we should let them. Russia doesn’t need to lose hundreds of thousands in a war to suffer. We could achieve the same, or worse damage, by simply making it easier for the best of them to settle in the West.
People are always drawn to where it is easier to live and more money.
One cannot imagine how Russia has changed starting from 2014 or a little bit earlier. It was not a paradise before but there were significant amount of decent things, and opportunities to be seen. It is crazy. Especially when you come after some 1-2 year gaps. It is just painful to see the news and hear the official discourses. When I am there, I am just thinking that yes, there is an ‘asymum seeking’ thing in the international law, different kind of protection for different reasons but what about the mental/psychological suffering of propaganda/ridiculous laws/the horror claims around. It is just unbearable for me, and I am not living there permanently anymore.