Compatriots Shall Not Return

June 28, 2006
Kommersant

Isolationist idea of “returning the compatriots” should be juxtaposed to the idea of Big Russia. President Putin urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Russians living abroad “on a higher and more substantial level.” This task is much more important and ambitious than earlier promoted program of returning expatriates to Russia.
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Despite such a big diaspora, Russia is practically indifferent to it, and does not work with it. Meanwhile, a diaspora can play a very significant role for the developing counties of the modern global world. It may become a source of influence, a mechanism of building relations, a bridge for technology import.

The economy of many countries relies greatly on the emigrants. Thus, India received $21.7 billion through money transfers in 2005. World Bank estimated that Russia received only $1.81 billion, which is very little even compared to such countries as Serbia ($4.1 billion) and Brazil ($3.6 billion). Many countries directly borrow from emigrants. In the 1950s, Israel issued sovereign bonds for Jewish diaspora in the U.S. and collected nearly $50 million. Later, China, India, Pakistan, and other countries successfully obtained state loans from their diasporas.

However, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Charles Sabel of World Bank believe the influx of expatriates’ money is the least effective way of using fellow countrymen who live abroad. They name Armenia as a bad example, where nearly 3.5 million Armenians lived in 1990, and almost the same number of Armenians lived abroad. The diaspora was organized well, it had enough intellectuals and businessmen, but this did not help Armenia to begin rapid modernization. One of the reasons is that Armenian government regarded foreign Armenian elite as their competitors, and was interested only in money influx, but did not want to involve the diaspora into the life of Armenia.

China, on the contrary, is a good example. Researchers from World Bank write that Chinese authorities managed to link the country to global network of value added formation with the help of diaspora. Foreign companies, owned by Chinese expatriates, joined into world process of goods production in the course of many years of their existence in the conditions of global economy. When Deng Xiaoping proclaimed open-door policy in 1978, emigrants’ companies began purchasing assets in China, move part of their productions there, etc. Thus China established connections between itself and global economy.

In a similar way, the success of Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley and its connections in the U.S. attracted many foreign orders to Indian IT-companies. It is notable that India did not need to draw highly educated migrants back to their homeland. On the contrary, migrants served India best being abroad.

The success of such strategies shows that a country should not isolate itself from the outer world in the conditions of globalization. It should not either regard its emigrants as casts-off, or try to make them return. Russians in Russia and abroad should be regarded as members of Big Russia, the borders of which in global economy exceed its national frontiers.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.