This trend is evident in other countries across Eastern Europe and the CIS, where markets are growing more quickly than the qualified workforce
Ukrainians who left their homeland back in the 1990s in search of a better life abroad are being drawn back to the country in growing numbers. Recruitment firms say that the reverse brain drain is a significant trend fueled by the country’s booming economy.
This trend is evident in other countries across Eastern Europe and the CIS, where markets are growing more quickly than the qualified workforce.
“What we’re seeing at the moment is that a lot of people who’ve gone abroad from countries like Ukraine in the early to mid-90s … are at the moment realizing that they can have a better, faster, more profitable career coming back home,” said Luc Jones, a partner at the Moscow headquarters of Antal International Ltd., an international recruitment firm that has been working in the CIS since 1994.
Jones terms these candidates “repats,” meaning nationals from CIS countries like Ukraine who emigrated nearly a decade ago, built a life and career abroad, but who are now returning to their former, native country at the prospects of advancing their careers.
Official state migration statistics show a larger inflow of migrants than outflow during the January-March 2007 period, with nearly 11,000 immigrants into the country compared with around 7,000 Ukrainians moving abroad.
However, the repat trend is difficult to officially verify, as statistics don’t separate the masses of blue collar labor seeking temporary work abroad from educated white collar migrations.
“Of course, the net outflow [of skilled migrants] is still greater than the net inflow,” Jones said, “but we have seen in the last couple of years a considerable trend of qualified, skilled Ukrainians coming back.”
Jones believes that Ukraine is appealing to repats for personal reasons, strong family ties and economic incentives.
The biggest draw is the economy, along with the country’s comparatively low 15 percent income tax rate, Jones believes.
“For a good, young, bright person who’s got a bit of Western experience, they can come back to their home country … and have a faster, more profitable, successful career here in many cases.”
Jones said that repats are benefiting from a “candidates’ market” because there is a shortage of skilled, experienced professionals. He said repat candidates tend to have mid to senior-level management experience and are being hired in a variety of fields, including finance, technology, legal, audit and banking.
Repats have a number of desirable qualities that many local candidates lack.
They have international exposure and experience working in mature and highly developed markets. They also bring with them language skills and the ability to relate to other cultures. Repats have a competitive advantage over other foreign candidates because they are perceived to bring more stability, as they will typically come back and want to stay for a longer period.
However, “there is always a perceived risk with people like this, especially if it’s a sales job. The directors will often say, ‘this person doesn’t have the connections or the market knowledge,’” Jones said, “but it’s a way to get around the skills shortage.”
From Donetsk to Kyiv via Toronto
One such repat is Pavel Maraev, a 30-year-old Donetsk native who left in 1997. Last year he decided to give up a comfortable life and IT job in Toronto, Canada for work in his native Ukraine.
He originally left on a one-year study exchange program in the US, and rather than returning to Ukraine at the end of the year, he enrolled at the University of Kansas. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1999 and a master’s in business and information systems in 2001.
In 2002 he immigrated to Toronto, where he worked in sales for companies like IBM and Gateway before landing a job at Computer Associates as an account manager.
According to different estimates, the number of Ukrainians who emigrated in the 1990s varies from several hundred thousand to several million. The mass exodus was witnessed across countries in Eastern Europe and the CIS due to the serious economic depression that set in after the Soviet Union was dismantled.
Maraev estimates that about 30 percent of the students in his exchange program didn’t return to Ukraine afterward.
Maraev said that he began thinking about a new job when rumors of layoffs started to circulate in the Toronto office.
“Living in Canada, things are very quiet and predictable. You have your job, you do what you gotta do to get paid, and that’s pretty much it,” he said.
“I thought to myself, why don’t I try something fun and try to do something different with my life.”
With his parents still in Ukraine, the idea of moving back was always at the back of his mind. Maraev also thought about the prospects of using his international business experience to become a teacher of international business after retirement.
He sent his resume to Antal International, which called him back right away and said that he had very good prospects for employment in the CIS.
Maraev came to Kyiv in August 2006 and within 10 days was offered a job by a major American IT company.
By September 2006, Maraev had sold his car and other belongings in Toronto, and moved his life back to Ukraine.
Higher status
Katya Timonkina, head of the banking and financial services department at the Ukrainian branch of Hudson Highland Group HR Consultancy, estimates that she receives about one resume per week from Ukrainian expats. She has seen the number of resumes from Ukrainians living abroad rise significantly in the past year, due to the huge boom in Ukraine’s banking and finance industries.
Timonkina herself left the country in 1993 as a 19-year-old to study in the US. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of San Francisco, she was offered a job at a custom electronics manufacturing company as a project manager. Timonkina later moved to Scotland, where she received an MBA at the University of Glasgow. She returned to Ukraine two years ago after landing the job at Hudson.
Timonkina said that she decided to return because her parents still live in the country and because she felt she could make a significant contribution to Ukrainian society.
“I feel like I can probably bring more to Ukraine at the moment than to another country,” she said.
Although Timonkina said she would probably earn more had she stayed in the US, in Ukraine she doesn’t feel “like a needle in a haystack.”
“I think all of us are feeling like there are opportunities [here]. The opportunities are more exciting, things are still in development and we can still make a visible contribution,” she added.
Like Jones, Timonkina said that currently there is a hiring boom in banking, and there aren’t enough people to cover certain vacancies.
Timonkina said that banks’ priority is people with fluent English and an international education, but Ukrainian expats have their own particular appeal:
“If they need to make a choice between a foreigner and a person who is of Ukrainian descent who has studied or lived abroad, I would say that they would probably prefer [the latter] just because the culture is closer to them, they can communicate in the same language, and I think for me personally, it’s a good combination. You know your country, your people, you know the mindset, yet you’ve gone and explored something else, you’re more fulfilled and you can look at the world with open eyes.”
“Even five years ago, people with an international education weren’t considered valuable commodities, because everybody complained that all they want is money,” she added.
Open fields
Some expats are returning because their professions have become more profitable in Ukraine.
Sergei Poyarkov is a book illustrator who first traveled to the US shortly before the break-up of the Soviet Union to take part in a book illustration contest in Los Angeles. He recently chose to make Kyiv his home instead of New York City, where he had lived for years. He said that his field of work is more lucrative in Ukraine than in the US.
“In the US, you can’t even split people with a laser, there is so much competition. But in Ukraine you look across an empty field. There is so much opportunity to become the best in your field – the best illustrator, the best politician, the best anything,” Poyarkov said.
