The impact of student migration on St Petersburg

Migration is a space-time phenomenon, defining movement of people from one place to another during a certain period of time with an intent to settling there. Migration can be international or internal, but it always has an impact on both sides: place, that people leave, and a place, that people move to. It might be a part of a city, a village, a region, a country or a continent. In my writing, I will talk about people who come to St Petersburg to study from other parts of Russia, and what changes they cause in the city.

Student migration is movement of people who study outside of their place of birth and permanent residence for a period of 12 months or more [2, p. 80]. St Petersburg has been an important student destination for a long time, especially since the Unified State Exam was introduced. As for now, there are about 300 thousands students of universities total in St Petersburg, and 72% of them come from different parts of Russia, which is a significant number [7].

I consider this topic to be highly relevant due to the following reasons. First, 21st century is an age of migration. Numbers of people moving cities, regions, countries rise every year. Most important part of those flows are young people with an intent to stay: they have higher chances of successful integration into society and will work for the economy for a long time. Second, St Petersburg is considered to be a cultural capital of Russia, capital of universities, museums and theatres. Following the fact that about ¾ of all students in St Petersburg are people from other parts of Russia, researching their impact on the city is an important question.

Nevertheless, what exactly do students do in St Petersburg, apart from studying, and how it effects the city? Here are some possible impacts of this issue.

Considering the importance of St Petersburg in maintaining relations with Europe and the whole world, there are many forums, summits and exhibitions held in the city. For example, St Petersburg International Economic Forum – the main economic event under the patronage of the president of Russian Federation, attracts many companies and countries and accumulates billions of dollars for the economy. A significant part of the forum and so to say its face have become volunteers, who work with participants, greet them at the venue, give directions, help with getting around the city and more. All of these volunteers are young adults, and most of them study full-time in universities. There are agreements between the heads of the forum and universities that students are free from their studies and examination is they participate in the forum as volunteers. Most of the other events have the same structure: they hire students for just a couple of days, teach them important skills, provide with catering and uniform. Later they have a system of well-experienced and active people who are willing to work there for the sake of curiosity and getting a new letter of appreciation. This helps to set some new events, because there is no need to pay a salary to volunteers, but there is a huge mass of experienced students and usually a high competition for better positions. The fact that many students come from other parts of Russia provides forums with some diversity, as they all think differently and approach problems in a variety of ways, cooperate easier and adjust for working with others in a new place quickly.

What is more, many students work regular part-time jobs and full-time in summer. Since St Petersburg is a popular travel destination, many cafes, museums, art galleries, boat trip agencies need people to work there when there is a higher demand for such services. There are usually a few full-time workers and all the rest are hired from the many students there are in St Petersburg when needed. Many students do not leave St Petersburg during the summer: they love the city and wish to spend more time there; thanks to not so high prices and job opportunities, it is not a hard thing to do. That is why St Petersburg is not struggling with finding people for seasonal work. Moreover, places often ask people who want to be hired for papers, proofing that they have a citizenship of Russia and are staying in St Petersburg officially, which is usually given by dorms or employers. This way, anyone who just got to St Petersburg and now rents a flat is unable to apply for such job, as well as any foreigners. Students who originally live in St Petersburg tend to look for permanent jobs, since they are not planning to visit their family of friends in other cities for long periods and will not need to give up their work.

As I already mentioned, students in St Petersburg like to go out and visit places, organize events, create and develop their own ideas. This leads to opening new spaces for such people, where they can meet up, have discussions, present their projects and seek support. One of the examples of such places is loft project “Etaji” (“Floors” or “Levels”), which was opened in 2007 in an old breadmaking plant building in the city centre. As for now, this is one of the most visited places in St Petersburg; it is extremely popular among teenagers, young adults and students. There are numerous workshops, galleries, editorial offices, cafes and bars, exhibitions of artists, sculptors and photographers, festivals, concerts and open roof. This place attracts over three thousands visitors each day and over five thousand during the weekends. They are open for young entrepreneurs and their ideas, start-ups, which is a result of dozens of thousands of new creative and active people coming to the city each year. Another good example of an effort to make fresh minds develop the city and make their thoughts and creations a reality is StudUrbanLab – a project aimed to developing skills of working on real projects in the field of improving urban environment. The interdisciplinary groups of students with skills in geography, sociology, urban planning, architecture, economics work under guidance of a leading expert to make up concepts of development of urban space in St Petersburg. After finishing the course and a presentation of the projects, there is a possibility to contact the government officials or businesses, that would like to apply those ideas to real life. Mobile students, who have already migrated to the city, are more open to new possibilities and usually are more self-confident. They have already participated in a huge competition trying to get to study in the cultural capital of Russia, so now many of them feel like they should take any chance to make their presence in the city visible. On the other hand, students who never left their home city tend to be more insecure and might feel less competitive in comparison to the flows of students from all over Russian Federation. [5, p. 73]

It would seem that students mainly move to study in another city of Russia with an intent on settling there in the future. Which brings us to the idea that if a person is willing to make this place a future home for themselves, they will do their best to improve it since the day they get there. St Petersburg is considered to be one of the most vegan-friendly and waste sorting cities in Russia, since younger people who live there are developing their own ideas of improving the ecological situation.

Some troubles that are brought by student migration, are over-crowded public transportation and too hard partying among young people. Though public transport in St Petersburg functions better than in many other cities in Russia, it is still not ready for students taking trains or buses to the city. Some of the dorms are located in Petergof, where thousands of students live while studying in the city centre. There are no efficient ways of getting to the city in less than two hours and it leads to students spending at least four to five hours in public transport each day. Considering Petergof palace and garden one of the most attractive tourist sights, buses and trains during rush hours are packed. The city administration states that there is no possibility to extend number of buses or create special lines, so this problem remains unsolved for many years.

In spite of St Petersburg being so approachable from other parts of Russia, students usually have a lot of freedom and are no longer under full control of their parents. For their whole life they used to live with their family and, as soon as they turn eighteen, they are capable of living on their own and taking responsibility for that. Problem is, this much of power often leads to partying and unhealthy lifestyle. All this has created another image of the city: now St Petersburg is not only a cultural capital, but also the capital of drinking.

Now I would like to present some data, analysing migration in St Petersburg. Down below there is a table, based on information from Administration of the Federal State Statistics Service for the City of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region website [8]. We can see that the biggest group of emigrants in St Petersburg are people coming from other regions of Russia – 63.9% in 2016 and 60.9% in 2017.

Table 1Emigration to St Petersburg

There is a visible decrease in the number of universities and students since 2014 [7]. In 2017 there are 77 educational organizations of higher education and 293.4 thousand students, while in 2014 there used to be 88 educational organizations and 317.1 thousand students. It is all a result of educational reformation, that helps closing universities that have low standards, but also because there is a higher demand for people with college degree, rather than well-educated specialist with a Bachelor’s or Master’s.

The educational system forms a specific type of migration - educational, contributing to the structure of educational institutions, each of which tends to attract migrants. Educational migration has been one of the most important channels for territorial redistribution of the population, first in the USSR, and now in Russia. There are special conditions, regulating where people live: residence permit, which existed from the 1930s to 1995, and registration in the place of stay (since 1996) [3, p. 205]. Moving to study was and still remains one of the most reliable ways to obtain the right to live in a city (often large), and then the possibilities stay in it.

The main streams of educational migrants are from village to town, from small and medium-sized cities to large cities, to regional centres. It is because cities, primarily large ones, have relatively developed territorial educational systems, and therefore more pleasant conditions for satisfying people's needs.

Educational migration is an important type of migration in Russia, which has a serious impact on the life of cities and regions. For some cities, migration to study and work after graduation is the main type of migration mobility of the population. Migration of young people to study is connected with various socioeconomic reasons: increased mobility of young people among other age groups of the population; social needs of youth in education; differences in regional levels of development of the education system. [5, p. 193]

As surveys of youth show, up to one third of graduates of schools aimed at enrolling in higher education organizations, plan to continue their studies in other cities. [3, p. 209] Transport accessibility, the ability to stay in a dormitory, relatives living in that city already – these arguments people name for choosing a place for obtaining a higher education. Today, more often than before, surveys mention transport accessibility. Part of all students when choosing the centre of education are guided only by considering prestige, coming from the hierarchy of educational institutions, as well as the location.

The prestige and the authority of the university are the main factors of migration of graduates to the universities of the largest cities of the country. The city – an educational centre is attractive for young people beginning their studies in smaller regions. Therefore, in Moscow, St Petersburg and other largest regional centres, the geography of applicants remains quite extensive.

To conclude, I would like to highlight that student migration is an important part of migration flows not only in Russia, but also in the whole world. It is often used to legitimate stay and get citizenship or permanent residence, so sometimes it is not the university that attracts people but the place where it is located. The impact that such migration has on the city is visible, though quite hard to distinguish: are those people who make the changes really people from other regions in Russia, what makes these differences valuable and important? Would not they happen the same way if student migration changed or was not possible anymore? This article is a brief introduction into the topic.