America is not loved, but suitcases are being packed.
The number of Russians wishing to emigrate to the US reached an all-time high in 2015, Bloomberg reports citing the State Department. The US State Department has accepted 265,086 applications from Russia this year for green cards, which grant the right to permanent residence in the US, despite a quota of 4,000 such documents allocated for Russia.
According to State Department statistics, Bloomberg notes, 245,638 Russians received work and student visas last year, granting temporary stay in the US, which is twice as many as ten years ago. Additionally, last year, permits for permanent residence in the US on family and other grounds were issued to 3,622 Russian citizens, including 56 people who obtained visas in exchange for investments of at least $500,000.
According to Bloomberg, last year about 75,300 Russians were granted residency in the European Union and Switzerland, which is 25% more compared to 2010. Most often, Russian citizens chose the UK, Germany, and Spain for residence, the agency notes. In addition, the number of applications for Israeli citizenship has grown by 30% over the past five years, according to Bloomberg.
New York immigration lawyer Marina Fuksman, who left the Soviet Union for the US, told Bloomberg that wealthy Russians are increasingly looking at the US as a safe place to 'park their money, and possibly their life partners and children.' Less wealthy Russians, according to her, simply want to earn more money by applying for professional visa programs.
'Kremlin policy puts the educated class before a choice: either fall in line under the banner of the fight against the West, or leave,' Moscow political scientist Alexander Morozov, who recently moved to Germany, told Bloomberg in September. The agency noted that amid international isolation, economic decline, and tightening regulation in various areas, the brain drain from Russia has intensified. In particular, it was said that scientists and specialists in high technology, banking, and law are leaving, and the Skolkovo technology park has become, according to its former development director Maxim Kiselev, 'an incubator for emigrants.'
A recent Levada Center poll showed that 18% of Russians are ready to leave the country, which is 4% more than in 2014. At the same time, a record number of respondents expressed negative attitudes toward the US and Western values: 71% negatively assessed the US role in the world, and 45% negatively assessed the Western lifestyle, compared to 30% in 2008. Six years ago, 46% of respondents approved of Western values, and a third opposed them.