IGOR EFREMOV COMMENTED ON THE EXODUS OF QUALIFIED EMPLOYEES FROM RUSSIA

Igor Efremov, Researcher, International Research Department of Political Demography and Macrodynamics at the Gaidar Institute, estimated losses to the Russian economy from migration to other countries in an interview to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

The RAS experts indicated the problem of an outflow of young qualified personnel from Russia, which in terms of the quality of human capital cannot be fully "replaced" by an inflow of migrants: so far, mostly university-educated people leave Russia (60% of those who left), while those who arrive often have no education (50% of those who arrived). Experts, however, call these figures understated, referring to reports of the receiving states. However, when referring only to Russian statistics, every year about Rb 20bn are underproduced in Russia due to emigration, while taking into account that it is mostly young people who leave, those who could work another 30 years, the potential value of underproduced GDP could exceed Rb 500bn a year, according to calculations by RAS specialists.

Igor Efremov noted that "emigration of the most educated specialists takes place in most countries, even much more developed and wealthier than Russia. This is a normal process. However, an imbalance occurs "when this flow is not compensated by an equal or greater flow of skilled migrants into the country," the expert explains.

Nevertheless, according to the expert, “given the much larger scale of immigration to Russia, it is safe to say that benefits to the Russian economy resulted from immigration are far greater than the losses from the emigration of skilled Russians.

Moreover, Igor Efremov stressed that the problem is often not the allegedly low level of education or human capital of immigrants, but the inability of host societies and labor markets to use human capital of immigrants effectively. “Level of qualifications of many migrants is far higher than their jobs require, the expert said. This, unfortunately, happens in all developed countries and reduces the benefits of migration both for migrants and host societies.”

By all means, the attractiveness of the country for both domestic and foreign workers, depends on the economic situation and the level of wages, including the exchange rate differences. "Russian wages in international comparisons are not only rather low, but they have also been declining steadily in recent years relative to other developed and even some developing countries," said Igor Efremov.