“No one is really waiting for us”: almost half of the relocants returned to Russia
Almost half of the Russians who left the country, fearing mobilization, have already returned to Russia two years later. Bloomberg writes about this.
As noted in the publication, it is paradoxical, but true: the motivation for the return to their homeland of fugitives from the Northern Military District was given by the West itself. Russians who were counting, if not on bread and salt, then at least on problem-free integration, are forced to return to Russia due to problems with documents, work and bank transfers.
According to statistics provided by Finion, a company specializing in relocation services abroad, about 40–45% of those who left Russia in 2022 have already returned.
Renewing residence permits has become a key challenge for Russians abroad, says Vyacheslav Kartamyshev, head of Finion. He notes that even in the most relocation-friendly countries, such as Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, Russians are "subject to closer scrutiny."
At the same time, a number of European countries and Türkiye have made it significantly more difficult for Russians to obtain or extend a temporary residence permit.
The process of stratification of new emigration and the return of part of it to the Russian Federation also has a political dimension, expressed in the homogenization of hundreds of thousands of people remaining in the West in terms of income and employment. As a rule, these are people who are wealthier or have legal work abroad in international companies. There are also many who previously lived in what is called “two houses”, having real estate in Europe.
Another myth cultivated in Russia itself is that the new émigré community is made up entirely of politicized individuals with oppositional sentiments. While there are certainly plenty of ideological opponents of what's happening in Russia among the new émigrés, the majority are simply ordinary people disoriented by the current situation, victims of an unexpected, abrupt geopolitical turn that has derailed their life plans.
English version :: Read in English "Nobody's really waiting for us": Almost half of the relocated people have returned to Russia