Emigration of Russian doctors abroad: reasons and potential of reemigration

Abstract

The article presents the results of an empirical study. The aim of the study is to identify the real factors of the emigration of Russian doctors abroad in the period from 2013 to 2019. The theoretical part of the study was built within the framework of a sociological approach. The theory of “attraction and pushing” by Everett Lee was taken as a basis. In the course of the study, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted with Russian doctors who at the time of the study were permanently living and working abroad. The uniqueness of the results of this study lies in the fact that the empirical object of the study is not doctors who want to go abroad, but doctors who have already moved and at the time of the study are permanently residing abroad. In each interview, questions were asked on the following topics: reasons for moving from Russia, how was the decision-making process to move, how the respondent chose a country for a new place of residence, what were the costs of moving, the respondent’s attitude to the Russian healthcare system, the question of returning to Russia.

The article is divided into two parts. The first part provides a detailed analysis of the research results with quotes from respondents. The second part describes 4 groups of identified factors of emigration of Russian doctors: pull factors abroad in general, pull factors in the healthcare system abroad, push factors in Russia as a whole, push factors in the healthcare system in Russia. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the push factors of the emigration of Russian doctors abroad over the attractive ones. Extremely low return migration attitudes have been identified. Also, no significant impact of socio-political and natural-climatic factors of pushing out on the process of emigration of Russian doctors was revealed.