Highly Skilled Migrants from Post-Soviet States: Labor Mobility

Abstract

The Russian labor market is experiencing a shortage of highly skilled workers, and there is a consensus in Russian society that it is necessary to attract and utilize the labor of highly qualified foreign specialists. The key question of the article is: how much demand is there on the Russian labor market for the knowledge and experience of highly qualified migrants? What types of economic activities and occupations are typical for highly skilled migrants? What is their horizontal and vertical mobility on the Russian labor market? The article shows that highly skilled workers who come from post-Soviet states to Russia take jobs which are not in demand among Russian workers; the main types of their economic activities are trade, construction, utilities, social and personal services, and household assistance. Neither specific skills and knowledge nor qualifications of foreign workers are demanded on the Russian labor market: over 80% of highly skilled migrants work at jobs which do not require their education or qualification. Vertical labor mobility is predominantly downward, and upward mobility is quite rare (downward mobility is less typical for highly skilled migrants who have received education in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus). The empirical basis of the study was the results of sociological surveys of 1,450 highly qualified migrants from the CIS and Georgia in 2017 and 1,050 in 2011.