Why you should not emigrate from Russia
There is such a wonderful saying - "Well, where we are not." She most accurately conveys the sensations that arise every time you listen to another story about how safely and calmly live in Europe, America, Australia, and many more. During the twentieth century, many emigrated from Russia often, but mostly forcedly. The representatives of the propertied classes and participants of the White movement, Jews, Volga Germans, Poles left.
In the 1990s, a “brain drain” began - due to unemployment, dissatisfaction with working conditions, highly qualified specialists, primarily those of a technical or natural sciences, left Russia. Another segment of emigration is marriage. Hundreds of thousands of Russians in the 1990s - 2010s married citizens of other countries and left for their husbands. Finally, there are those who simply go “for the best share”, succumbing to the propaganda of the “Westerners” about how well they live in Sweden or the Czech Republic, Belgium or Italy. But is it possible to measure a happy and prosperous life only with material indicators that can be better in Europe (and even then not everywhere and not at all)?
Let's start with the most important thing. All expats face a language barrier. At whatever level you know foreign languages, you will still feel like a stranger. Moreover, they usually study in schools and universities in Russia in English, in the extreme case German or French, but not Swedish, Czech, Italian or Spanish in any way, and it is far from always that Russians immigrate only to English-speaking or French-speaking countries.
The language barrier is not only and not so much the impossibility to explain on the street, in a store, in a government agency. In the end, any language can be pulled to the required level. But language forms consciousness, culture, therefore, a person whose native language was Russian will never fully understand a foreign language person.
Mental differences play no less role than the language barrier. Although there are fewer differences between a Russian and a Swede or an Englishman than between, say, a Russian and a Madagascan, nevertheless, these differences are present and there are not so few of them. Many Russian wives who have married Europeans often resent the insufficiently gallant behavior of foreign spouses - what to do, care for in European society "egalitarian relations" between a man and a woman have long forgotten how.
In Western countries there is no such strong and all-forgiving friendship between people as in Russia; relations between relatives are built in a completely different way there. As a result, many Russians who have migrated to Europe or America are rather painful in their souls, which is why they "get together", talking with former compatriots, from whom they were in such a hurry to leave for the West at one time.
Finally, and from a material point of view, life in the West is not as rosy as it would seem. With high salaries, Europeans are deprived of many amenities that seem commonplace to us. For example, most Russians are very surprised that the British wash themselves, rinse their mouths and shave with the same water - what to do, saving. In Germany, families usually bathe in the bath in the same water. In British homes there is no heating at all, or it is turned on for a very short time, so even houses go in shoes and sweaters. For Russians, most of whom do not know the need for water, electricity or gas, this looks amazing, but, nevertheless, a significant part of Europe lives this way.
It will surprise many of our mothers, but in most Western countries there is no three-year parental leave with a job, no cheap kindergartens with three meals a day, and dad can also be sent to the “decree” - so that the family is “equal”.
In general, before thinking about leaving for other countries for permanent residence, it is better to weigh the pros and cons three times and understand that if you are not useful at home, in your native country where your brothers, sisters, parents or children, friends live and comrades, it’s ridiculous to hope that somewhere there is an “eldorado” in which you are welcomed and immediately endowed with all possible and impossible privileges and bonuses.
In the 1990s, a “brain drain” began - due to unemployment, dissatisfaction with working conditions, highly qualified specialists, primarily those of a technical or natural sciences, left Russia. Another segment of emigration is marriage. Hundreds of thousands of Russians in the 1990s - 2010s married citizens of other countries and left for their husbands. Finally, there are those who simply go “for the best share”, succumbing to the propaganda of the “Westerners” about how well they live in Sweden or the Czech Republic, Belgium or Italy. But is it possible to measure a happy and prosperous life only with material indicators that can be better in Europe (and even then not everywhere and not at all)?
Let's start with the most important thing. All expats face a language barrier. At whatever level you know foreign languages, you will still feel like a stranger. Moreover, they usually study in schools and universities in Russia in English, in the extreme case German or French, but not Swedish, Czech, Italian or Spanish in any way, and it is far from always that Russians immigrate only to English-speaking or French-speaking countries.
The language barrier is not only and not so much the impossibility to explain on the street, in a store, in a government agency. In the end, any language can be pulled to the required level. But language forms consciousness, culture, therefore, a person whose native language was Russian will never fully understand a foreign language person.
Mental differences play no less role than the language barrier. Although there are fewer differences between a Russian and a Swede or an Englishman than between, say, a Russian and a Madagascan, nevertheless, these differences are present and there are not so few of them. Many Russian wives who have married Europeans often resent the insufficiently gallant behavior of foreign spouses - what to do, care for in European society "egalitarian relations" between a man and a woman have long forgotten how.
In Western countries there is no such strong and all-forgiving friendship between people as in Russia; relations between relatives are built in a completely different way there. As a result, many Russians who have migrated to Europe or America are rather painful in their souls, which is why they "get together", talking with former compatriots, from whom they were in such a hurry to leave for the West at one time.
Finally, and from a material point of view, life in the West is not as rosy as it would seem. With high salaries, Europeans are deprived of many amenities that seem commonplace to us. For example, most Russians are very surprised that the British wash themselves, rinse their mouths and shave with the same water - what to do, saving. In Germany, families usually bathe in the bath in the same water. In British homes there is no heating at all, or it is turned on for a very short time, so even houses go in shoes and sweaters. For Russians, most of whom do not know the need for water, electricity or gas, this looks amazing, but, nevertheless, a significant part of Europe lives this way.
It will surprise many of our mothers, but in most Western countries there is no three-year parental leave with a job, no cheap kindergartens with three meals a day, and dad can also be sent to the “decree” - so that the family is “equal”.
In general, before thinking about leaving for other countries for permanent residence, it is better to weigh the pros and cons three times and understand that if you are not useful at home, in your native country where your brothers, sisters, parents or children, friends live and comrades, it’s ridiculous to hope that somewhere there is an “eldorado” in which you are welcomed and immediately endowed with all possible and impossible privileges and bonuses.
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