Elite Migration in Armenia February 2009 Anush Dulgaryan, Arpine Porsughian, Aaron Erlich, Dr. Hans Gutbrod

The Aim The aim of the survey is to study migration dynamics in Armenia among the highly educated. The Survey Addresses Where graduates from of Armenia’s elite schools are now; The educational advancement and the types of jobs highly educated migrants currently hold; Personal contacts and networks elite migrants hold with Armenia. Preliminary Findings This presentation represents preliminary findings More inferential analysis and statistical tests will be carried out in the future

Methodology School typeSchool names Math schools PhysMath school named after Shahinyan School N55 named after A. P. Chekhov “Kvant Varzharan” English Schools Secondary School N 114 Secondary School N 172 Russian School N20 named after John Kirakosyan Control group (Armenian) School N19 named after Nichol Aghbalyan

Sample

Where the migrants are CountryCountPercent Australia11 Canada56 Egypt11 England33 France22 Germany33 Iran11 Poland11 Russia4450 Uruguay11 USA2630 Total88100

Summary 22% of all the alumni from the selected elite schools are migrants. The majority is in Russia (50%) and US (30%). This percentage is particularly high in the so-called physmath and Russian language schools where round one in three have migrated. The majority of the elite migrants reside abroad legally. They are quite well integrated in the society, have many native born friends, the majority speaks the state/working language of the country. Migrants are quite content with their situation in the country where they reside, and with their employment. In comparison, elites who are living in Armenia are less content with their situation in Armenia and with their earnings. Non-migrants place themselves more on the lower rungs of a 10 step economic ladder. They also rate their control over the economic situation significantly lower than migrants. Among the non-migrants (and migrants as well) the Math school alumni are comparably more content.

Summary (Cont.) More than half of the non-migrants have thought about migrating. Moreover, of those who have thought about migrating more than half would migrate now if they had the opportunity. The interest to migrate is the highest among the Armenian school alumni. Both migrants and non-migrants are quite skeptical about the social and economic developments in Armenia. Migrants are even more pessimistic, saying that situation in Armenia has not changed or has changed in the negative direction. The majority of migrants maintain connections to Armenia by sending monetary contributions on a regular basis. However, it appears that connections with Armenia are more on personal level and migrants do not maintain an active interest in current events. Involvement with Armenian social and cultural institutions in the countries where they reside is also surprisingly low among migrants. Armenian Apostolic Church attracts migrants the most, with less than half of them being involved with the Church. Generally, social involvement is quite similar across both groups – migrant and non- migrant.

Attitudes towards migration (Migrants)

Attitude towards migration (non-migrants)

Attitudes towards Armenia

Employment

Education

Social Capital

Recommendations The Government of Armenia should have reforms in place and change the situation to be able to attract its educated elite to return. The Government should also work towards changing the perception of migrants about the developments in Armenia. A working group should be formed to coordinate voluntary services better.