Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 27 – As in many
countries, a university degree is often a ticket out to a better place and a
better life in Russia, but graduates from universities in different parts of
Russia have different aspirations; and it must be a matter of concern to Moscow
that more than a third of those getting degrees in Kaliningrad want to leave
that Russian exclave and work abroad.
That figure is far higher than the
ones of the other regions a new Moscow study finds, a reflection of both the
special geographic position of the exclave – it is surrounded by foreign
countries and the Baltic Sea – and the economic difficulties that Kaliningrad
has been experiencing since the end of Soviet times (opec.ru/1861660.html).
But what may be even more
significant for Russia is the survey’s findings that fewer than a quarter of
all graduates of regional universities are interested in moving to other parts
of the country, an indication that an increasing share of them link their
futures not to the Russian Federation as a whole but to the portions of it in
which they live.
Said Ziganurov, a researcher at
Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, surveyed 1658 2013 graduates of
universities in five regional centers: Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Perm,
Rostov-na-Donu, and Ufa about where they planned to live and work. Economic factors – high pay and the
possibility of making a career – were the most important, but they weren’t the
only ones.
Almost as significant as the reason
for their choice as to where to live, the researcher found, were the
impressions the graduates had about the social-psychological comfort of this
city or that or indeed this country or that, a category that included both
security and tolerance, on the one hand, and the cultural “’aura’” on the
other.
Overall, about half of the sample
said they intended to remain in the city where they had studied, with about a
quarter (23 percent) saying they planned to move. Just under two-thirds of
those who planned to move said they would go to another city in Russia, but
just over one-third said they would go abroad.
Graduates in Kemerovo were the least
likely to say they would move, while those in Kaliningrad were the most likely,
a pattern that reflects their very different geographic situations, Ziganurov says.
The graduates also varied in terms of plans to return home to where they were
from with Perm showing the lowest in this regard and Ufa the highest.
The investigator asked the graduates
“why do you intend to go to this city or country?” Respondents were allowed to choose three
reasons from a closed list. The top three reasons they gave were finding
interesting work, good pay, or the idea that “this is the city of my
dreams.” Curiously, they did not say
they would go where those with their specialty were in high demand.
Ziganurov said that as expected
economic factors predominated “but at the same time,” others, such as
socio-cultural associations were “not unimportant,” including its reputation
for well-being in the broadest sense, the ease and comfort of living there, and
the presence of friends and relatives.
As an example of the way in which
these factors play out, he pointed to the very different reasons those who
wanted to go to Moscow justified their choice as compared to the reasons
offered by those who wanted to go to St. Petersburg.
Those who wanted to go to Moscow
mentioned good pay and marriage most often, while those who wanted to go to the
northern capital referred to security and tolerance, as a city that was special
in its own right rather than simply being a place where they could pursue a
high-paying career.
That distinction is one that many have
long intuitively felt. Now, the Higher School of Economics investigator has
provided data to back it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment