The Problems of “Brain Drain” in Russia and Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)

Abstract

Among many problems that determine current international migration of population, those that are associated with the phenomenon of "brain drain" are of particular importance and topicality. The authors express a fundamental disagreement with those who try to present this phenomenon as a "mutually beneficial process for all countries", as well as with those Russian authors who identify "brain drain" with "internal transition of people from scientific sphere to real production, business and social sphere" indicating this transition as "internal brain drain". Particular attention is paid to two modern features, namely: "brain drain" under conditions of demographic crisis and "brain drain" between member states of the EAEU.

Brain drain and brain gain in Russia: Analyzing international migration of researchers by discipline using Scopus bibliometric data 1996–2020

“…Despite its research contributions, Russia has remained a relatively under-studied case in the science of science and the high-skilled migration literature. Most studies on these topics have been limited to providing qualitative explanations for the emigration of specialists, which often do not go beyond suggesting the necessity of facilitating circular migration in Russia (Iontsev et al 2017;Kolesnikova et al 2014;Molodikova and Yudina 2016;Naumova 1998;Ryazantsev 2013;Taylor et al 1996;Ushkalov and Malakha 2001;Volz 2002;Yurevich et al 2019). Therefore, a deeper analysis is needed that quantitatively examines the international movements of researchers in Russia, and their implications for different fields of science.…”

A Brain Drain in Russian Agriculture? Migration Sentiments among Skilled Russian Rural Youth

“…Despite large cross-border movements in Russia, the brain drain problem has not yet been publicly discussed and is not perceived as a pressing issue (Kvartiuk 2015;Iontsev et al 2016). An exception is science, as many scientists have left the country, attracted by better conditions in the West (Korobkov & Zaionchkovskaia 2012;Iontsev et al 2017). The majority of Russian experts interviewed within this study see temporary migration as a positive phenomenon.…”

Brain drain and brain gain in Russia: analyzing international mobility of researchers by discipline using Scopus bibliometric data

“…Despite these features, Russia has been a relatively under-studied case in the scientometrics literature. Most studies on this topic are limited to qualitative explanations on the emigration of specialists which often do not go beyond suggesting the necessity of facilitating circular migration for Russia [38,15,24,17,31,37,36,27,34]. Therefore, a deeper analysis is needed to quantitatively study the international movements of researchers in Russia and its implications for different fields of science.…”