Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 28 – Since 2020, there have been three waves of outmigration from Belarus, sociologist Oksana Shelest says. The first involved those who feared repression for their political activities, and the second those who had been purged or whose jobs have been lost because of sanctions.
Now a third wave has appeared since February 24, she continues. It involves draft-age men who want to avoid being called to the colors and sent to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine (belmarket.by/news/2022/03/28/news-50300.html reposted at thinktanks.by/publication/2022/03/28/oxana-shelest-o-tretey-volne-emigratsii.html).
The numbers doing so in all three cases are far larger than officials acknowledge or than foreign governments are yet reporting, she says, because in all three cases, many leaving are doing so by simply walking over the border. And because there is no influx of people coming to Belarus to replace them, the country is losing its human potential.
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