Is it a good idea to build an offshore software development team in one of the baltic countries? Anyone has some perspective with that?
JRebel is produced in Estonia. So it seems to work out well.
The Baltic Demographic Disaster
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#32I'm interested in levels of ethnic Russian emigration from the Baltics. Has this happened, and if so, how much does it contribute to this picture?
They are the main component of the population loss. In 1989, the last census while in the USSR, the Baltics held a population of 1.7M ethnic Russians. After regaining independence, Estonia and Latvia denied citizenship to all post-1940 Russian immigrants (and their families). Today, only a million ethnic Russians remain. Some have been naturalized, but a lot have simply bailed, because the national populations are qu…
Can't speak about Estonia but in case of Latvia the idea of russian speaking people emigrating because of hostility is just ridiculous.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#33So what are the immigration policies of these Baltic states? How are they enticing new citizens? Have they relaxed their immigration criteria to try to get more citizens, or is it strict? If I wanted to immigrate to, say, Estonia next year, how difficult would it be?
No one wants to immigrate here. And actually, I'm happy with that.
P.O.E.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#34So what are the immigration policies of these Baltic states? How are they enticing new citizens? Have they relaxed their immigration criteria to try to get more citizens, or is it strict? If I wanted to immigrate to, say, Estonia next year, how difficult would it be?
No one wants to immigrate here. And actually, I'm happy with that.
Then that could well make you one of ultra-nationalistic Estonians who would rather see their country and language die rather than have it be 'tainted'.
I'm half Australian and half Estonian - and have citizenship of both countries. I've worked as a developer in both countries, and currently reside (and work) in Estonia. I see this attitude all the time in Estonia; despite the obvious need for immigration, many people would rather see the population keep on decreasing. Currently it's simply too difficult for professionals to get an Estonian visa, and wages are not attractive enough, in general, to attract those with an EU passport. This is part of the problem that will, in time, kill Estonia and likely the other Baltic countries.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#35Forbes, yeesh. It may be trite to roll out the correlation-is-not-causation argument, but this is so incredibly blatant it turns my stomach. The author's thesis could be summarized as: The Baltic population level has declined consistently since 1992, therefore Baltic economic policies must not be as desirable as some make them out to be. Population migration and economic policy are two astoundingly broad topics. Any…
That's not fair at all. The author's points are: 1) there has been a major population decline in the Baltics; 2) the decline is staggering even by comparison to Russia, which is widely thought to have a problem with population; 3) people making claims about economic reform in the Baltics should not ignore such a major factor.
Points 1 & 2 are facts, and are not in dispute, but point 3 is a question, not a statement.
"Don't ignore population growth/decline when examining economic reform."
Ok, but what of it? Is anyone ignoring that? If the author believes that the population decline in the Baltics is due to the economic policy therein, then they should find ways to establish that causal relationship, not just point at a graph and say "see here".
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#36I'm interested in levels of ethnic Russian emigration from the Baltics. Has this happened, and if so, how much does it contribute to this picture?
Interestingly, according to http://im.kommersant.ru/ISSUES.PHOTO/CORP/2013/02/21/dsryu4.... , the Baltics combined have the largest russian diaspora in the world, followed by USA, Germany and Israel. Probably due to the proximity and relative ease of emigration from Russia to the Baltic states. If you read russian, here is a series of articles with advice on various emigration destinations. It's an interesting view i…
I don't, so if you're inclined to give a summary I'd appreciate it.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#37So what are the immigration policies of these Baltic states? How are they enticing new citizens? Have they relaxed their immigration criteria to try to get more citizens, or is it strict? If I wanted to immigrate to, say, Estonia next year, how difficult would it be?
No one wants to immigrate here. And actually, I'm happy with that.
I've given it two minutes of thought a couple of times. You have fans--every country does.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#38I have lived with three or four Latvians. Two of them said that they moved from Latvia because, while they could get work there, they couldn't really get by on the wages offered by those jobs.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one wants to immigrate here. And actually, I'm happy with that.
Then that could well make you one of ultra-nationalistic Estonians who would rather see their country and language die rather than have it be 'tainted'. I'm half Australian and half Estonian - and have citizenship of both countries. I've worked as a developer in both countries, and currently reside (and work) in Estonia. I see this attitude all the time in Estonia; despite the obvious need for immigration, many peopl…
I'm in Finland now, going back down to Estonia. I'd like to meet an Estonian developer - I'm quite curious about the tech scene there. You don't have an email address but mine is hn at stroyvale.com . Please write me.
Re: The Baltic Demographic Disaster
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what if we narrow it down to population collapse as a result of emigration?
The only thing that immediately comes to mind is the Great Irish Famine, wherein around 10% of the population may have emigrated away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29 I'm certain there are other historical mass migrations of such enormous magnitude, but my point was really to glibly provide perspective for such a massive population decrease.
I would assume many/most of those emigrated people are in Scandinavia. It is a bit smaller step than moving to USA in the 19th century... (And much easier to move back, when the economy allows it.)
A more relevant parallel might be many internal moves in big countries to industrial areas, when industrialisation started.