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Work Migration Of Russian Scientists

July 19, 2004

Who are the Russian scientists moving abroad to work in recent times? The problem is analyzed by the Centre for Demography and Human Ecology of the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to official sources in 2002, 2.9 thousands of Russian scientists from about 300 institutes go to work abroad. That constitutes 0.7% of the total number of Russian researchers and 5% of the staff of those institutes. Therefore, research institutes in this country can be subdivided into two categories: a small fraction keeping good contacts with foreign institutes and most others having no solid contacts.

Higher chances to find a job abroad have doctors and candidates of sciences that make up 18% and 56%, respectively. As compared to the total number of titled researchers in this country, these are 2.5% of doctors and 2% of candidates. Russian physicists and biologists are most demanded: these are 1/4 and 1/3 of researchers working abroad, respectively. And 10% of the migrants are mathematicians. In total, natural scientists make up 77%. Many (40%) of them go abroad under joint projects, fewer (32%) get jobs in foreign institutes, and only 6% are invited as lectures and consultants.

Most Russian scientists working abroad are men, while women constitute only 25% of the migrants. Among young scientists (before the age of 40), the proportion of women is a bit higher (30%).

Major parts of the world accepting Russian scientists are West Europe (42%) and North America (30%). Considerable numbers of our scientists go in Asia and Scandinavia. Russian scientific connections with East Europe and post-soviet regions have interrupted. Concerning countries, the United States are in the first place, as 29% of Russian researchers are accommodated there; and 19% reside in Germany. Important numbers are moved in France (6%), Great Britain (5%), Japan (4%), Sweden (3%), Italy, Netherlands, and China (2% in each). The listed 10 countries all together accept three fourths of the considered outflow of scientists from Russia. And Russians are actively searching for their place in the global labour system and appeal also to the countries of the Third World. In 2002, Russian scientists work in 73 countries in total, which include Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, and other exotic states.

The geographic distribution of specialists in different fields is not the same. More than a half of physicists find work in West Europe (57%, every second one being in Germany) and one fourth - in the USA. Mathematicians too tend to move rather in West Europe. Biologists go mostly in the USA (46%) and in lesser amounts in West Europe (32%). Chemists and medical researchers have the same geographic pattern of migrations as biologists, likely because most of these migrants are connected with biology. Specialists in technical sciences are distributed otherwise: 18% work in India, 23% in Algeria, Iran, China, And Kazakhstan (in equal proportions in each of these countries), 25% in West Europe, but very few (9%) find jobs in the USA. Specialists in humanities move mostly in China, Germany, and USA; these three countries accept 60% of these migrants in nearly equal numbers.

However, the number of Russian scientists in the world scientific community is still very low. Our specialists can move only in countries that welcome them. But the world is not eager to multiply contacts with Russia now. Though physicists and mathematicians have already got support from abroad and established contacts that can grow into a partnership with their foreign colleagues, the situation is not the same in our social sciences that need a certain motivation to gain such contacts. Otherwise, social sciences will progressively weaken in comparison with developing natural sciences in this country.

Informnauka (Informscience) Agency