Motives and practices of international migration among Russian IT specialists during 2022-2023

Student: Lazenkova Alyona

Educational Programme: (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2024

The problem of staff shortage in the IT-sector has been extremely urgent for the Russian labor market for many years. Migration contributes to this problem: there is an outflow of highly qualified personnel from Russia. At the same time, the "brain drain" in IT has noticeably intensified in 2022-2023. The purpose of this graduation thesis is to identify the main motives and practices of international migration among Russian IT specialists during 2022-2023. The study includes a combination of digital methods (Internet-discourse research) and "classic" quantitative and qualitative methods (standardized online survey, semi-structured interview). In the thesis, we characterized the specifics of migration movements of IT-specialists, identified their main differences from the migration practices of previous years, found out what factors influence the decision to move, which countries are prioritized in the choice, and set the scene of IT-specialists' return to their home country.

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