Live data from Hacker News

Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

bloombergquint.com

41–50 of 203 posts

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#42
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not all of them, but many engineers are willing to move if they don't have kids and can make it work

If this BS going on will end up in couple of months they might be able to move back soon. If not, living somewhere abroad without close ones is going to hurt them in the long run. I moved out from my home country and in the place I live now people are nice, but I am never going to be one of them (so there are also not nice people, but it is easier to deal with not nice people from your own country). Some people have…

You have quite a negative view of immigration. It works well for many people (while for others it doesn't). Children are quite adaptable. The West is long ago not 100% white and it's only gonna become more pronounced the coming decades. It's mixed. Whites will become the minority in U.S and the UK in the coming decades. It's not that different in West Europe, Canada, Australia, etc. Overall it's a good trend for immigrants. Those children you describe may have a few rough episodes in their upbringing, but won't they have more rough episodes growing up in Belarus? Some proportion is needed.

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#43
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, it is no borders for "digital nomads" from first world countries having nice passports. Take into account COVID-19 pandemic and it is not as easy to move somewhere just now.

Neighboring Lithuania and Ukraine already eased visa regimes for Belarusians in hope to attrack highly skilled workers fleeing Lukashenka.

Yet Lithuania requires all of moving staff to apply for the Blue Card. Minority of programmers are eligible for it.

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's naive to say that there's no borders. You have to be qualified for the visa requirements. You also have to renew this visa every year or so. You have to start all over. Of course everything is possible with some effort and money, but i'm tired of seeing this term "no borders for it engineers".

Yea, whoever wrote that never heard of a "language barrier." IT is not some universal language.

Most of those IT workers probably know Russian and English languages. Knowing both of them you can both get an IT work in Eastern European countries and deal with everyday life. I don't think language barrier is that big of a problem for them.

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#45
post #30

I have a theory that when news orgs nurture soft authoritarians (Bush/Patriot Act, Obama/espionage charges for whistleblowers) their weakened journalistic instincts leave a vacuum that's easy for harder line authoritarians to fill. That's what I believed happened in the US. I wonder if a similar process happened in Belarus.

Maybe, but at least some journalists have been spot on about the way trump is going from Day 1 and that hasn't made any difference. He is still insulting war dead, threatening the validity of election, not even interested in solving COVID, and much more that I'm sure that you're already aware of. His approval ratings are at about 40%, that's not good but 40% is almost saint-like by (say) french standards. That's desp…

Trump isn't rated in a vacuum - There is too much hypocrisy in the opposition, starting with sticking with Biden after the allegation of sexual assault.

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#46
>Despite the authoritarian rule of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s tech companies have prospered.

The common argument I hear is they prospered because of authoritarian rule. Belarus never had to deal with oligarchs created by a power vacuum like in Ukraine or other EE countries. As a result a large portion of outsourcing labor for other EE countries is technically done through Belarussian companies(EPAM).

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#47
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but at least some journalists have been spot on about the way trump is going from Day 1 and that hasn't made any difference. He is still insulting war dead, threatening the validity of election, not even interested in solving COVID, and much more that I'm sure that you're already aware of. His approval ratings are at about 40%, that's not good but 40% is almost saint-like by (say) french standards. That's desp…

Trump isn't rated in a vacuum - There is too much hypocrisy in the opposition, starting with sticking with Biden after the allegation of sexual assault.

The allegations against Biden have almost no water at all. Unless they are waiting to use Reade as an October surprise they wasted it.

She made an allegation, and more specifically said she filed a complaint. The Biden team tried to publicly confirm its existence (i.e. they don't think it does), but the senate cannot publish it without Reade's permission. She later said she actually didn't publish a complaint.

I would be inclined to believe her if she could keep her story straight and generally not seem a bit unreliable.

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#48
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but at least some journalists have been spot on about the way trump is going from Day 1 and that hasn't made any difference. He is still insulting war dead, threatening the validity of election, not even interested in solving COVID, and much more that I'm sure that you're already aware of. His approval ratings are at about 40%, that's not good but 40% is almost saint-like by (say) french standards. That's desp…

Trump isn't rated in a vacuum - There is too much hypocrisy in the opposition, starting with sticking with Biden after the allegation of sexual assault.

[deleted]

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's naive to say that there's no borders. You have to be qualified for the visa requirements. You also have to renew this visa every year or so. You have to start all over. Of course everything is possible with some effort and money, but i'm tired of seeing this term "no borders for it engineers".

Yea, whoever wrote that never heard of a "language barrier." IT is not some universal language.

[deleted]

Re: Tech workers flee Belarus as IT haven takes authoritarian turn

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, whoever wrote that never heard of a "language barrier." IT is not some universal language.

Language is not that much of a problem. They all speak Russian. Lithuania has a sizable minority of Russian speakers, and has historical ties to Belarus. Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. Ukraine as well. Knowing Belarusian, they can pick up Polish rather quickly. As a last resort, Russia is still freer than Belarus politically and better off economically. Smolensk is half an hour drive from the Belarusian bo…

> Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking.

This seems to imply the majority of residents of Latvia speak Russian natively. That might have been correct had the USSR existed a bit longer, but history took a different turn.

"Most Latvian businesses, especially in the Riga area, will happily serve you in Russian." That would be a more neutral and correct statement appropriate for this context.

Also relevant would be how Latvian government is publicly angling for Belarussian businesses willing to relocate to Latvia [1].

Regarding native tongues in Latvia... Currently, over 30% of Latvian residents speak Russian, Belarussian or Ukrainian natively, versus 62.3% Latvian. In Riga, the number of Russian, Belorussian or Ukrainian native speakers rises to over 43% [0] versus 47.1% Latvian.

[0] http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080....

[1] https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-busin...

Post reply on HN