19 ms·

And it's naive to say that there's no borders. You have to be qualified for the visa requirements. You also have to renew this visa every year or so. You have t

And it's naive to say that there's no borders. You have to be qualified for the visa requirements. You also have to renew this visa every year or so. You have to start all over. Of course everything is possible with some effort and money, but i'm tired of seeing this term "no borders for it engineers".

ozim 6y ago
Agree, it is no borders for "digital nomads" from first world countries having nice passports. Take into account COVID-19 pandemic and it is not as easy to move somewhere just now.
- sam_lowry_ 6y ago
  Neighboring Lithuania and Ukraine already eased visa regimes for Belarusians in hope to attrack highly skilled workers fleeing Lukashenka.
  - useyourforce 6y ago
    Yet Lithuania requires all of moving staff to apply for the Blue Card. Minority of programmers are eligible for it.
- nomadrat 6y ago
  yeah i'm from Belarus, so i know everything about borders and also pandemic-related visiting troubles. currently in Vilnius on almost expired residence permit
akira2501 6y ago
Yea, whoever wrote that never heard of a "language barrier." IT is not some universal language.
- sam_lowry_ 6y ago
  Language is not that much of a problem. They all speak Russian. Lithuania has a sizable minority of Russian speakers, and has historical ties to Belarus. Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. Ukraine as well. Knowing Belarusian, they can pick up Polish rather quickly. As a last resort, Russia is still freer than Belarus politically and better off economically. Smolensk is half an hour drive from the Belarusian border.
  - agurk 6y ago
    While Russian is common it's not ubiquitous. Latvia is 26.9% ethnically Russian and 34% speak it at home. 27% of students are partially instructed in Russian. A referendum to adopt Russian as a 2nd offical language was voted against in 2012. Lithuania is 5.8% Russian with 39% speaking it as a foreign language. Numbers from Wikipedia.
  - markvdb 6y ago
    > Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. This seems to imply the majority of residents of Latvia speak Russian natively. That might have been correct had the USSR existed a bit longer, but history took a different turn. "Most Latvian businesses, especially in the Riga area, will happily serve you in Russian." That would be a more neutral and correct statement appropriate for this context. Also relevant would be how Latvian government is publicly angling for Belarussian businesses willing to relocate to Latvia [1]. Regarding native tongues in Latvia... Currently, over 30% of Latvian residents speak Russian, Belarussian or Ukrainian natively, versus 62.3% Latvian. In Riga, the number of Russian, Belorussian or Ukrainian native speakers rises to over 43% [0] versus 47.1% Latvian. [0] http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080.px/ http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080.... [1] https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-businesses-offered-fast-track-relocation-to-latvia.a372143/ https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-busin...
    - sam_lowry_ 6y ago
      Having being in Latvia a few times and knowing the historical context... I distrust Latvian language statistics. Still, even those statistics admit that Riga is mostly Russian-speaking [1]. This is where the IT crowd would land, anyway. [1] https://www.csb.gov.lv/en/statistics/statistics-by-theme/population/census/search-in-theme/1442-home-latvian-spoken-62-latvian-population https://www.csb.gov.lv/en/statistics/statistics-by-theme/pop...
- Karliss 6y ago
  Most of those IT workers probably know Russian and English languages. Knowing both of them you can both get an IT work in Eastern European countries and deal with everyday life. I don't think language barrier is that big of a problem for them.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - nine_k 6y ago
    English will get you pretty far in the daily life in Western Europe, too, in places like Sweden, or Netherlands, or cities like Berlin. (Not in France, of course.)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- walshemj 6y ago
  From experience working with coworkers from Belarus / Poland that's not a huge problem.
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ozim 6y ago

Agree, it is no borders for "digital nomads" from first world countries having nice passports. Take into account COVID-19 pandemic and it is not as easy to move somewhere just now.

sam_lowry_ 6y ago
Neighboring Lithuania and Ukraine already eased visa regimes for Belarusians in hope to attrack highly skilled workers fleeing Lukashenka.
- useyourforce 6y ago
  Yet Lithuania requires all of moving staff to apply for the Blue Card. Minority of programmers are eligible for it.
nomadrat 6y ago
yeah i'm from Belarus, so i know everything about borders and also pandemic-related visiting troubles. currently in Vilnius on almost expired residence permit

akira2501 6y ago

Yea, whoever wrote that never heard of a "language barrier." IT is not some universal language.

sam_lowry_ 6y ago
Language is not that much of a problem. They all speak Russian. Lithuania has a sizable minority of Russian speakers, and has historical ties to Belarus. Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. Ukraine as well. Knowing Belarusian, they can pick up Polish rather quickly. As a last resort, Russia is still freer than Belarus politically and better off economically. Smolensk is half an hour drive from the Belarusian border.
- agurk 6y ago
  While Russian is common it's not ubiquitous. Latvia is 26.9% ethnically Russian and 34% speak it at home. 27% of students are partially instructed in Russian. A referendum to adopt Russian as a 2nd offical language was voted against in 2012. Lithuania is 5.8% Russian with 39% speaking it as a foreign language. Numbers from Wikipedia.
- markvdb 6y ago
  > Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. This seems to imply the majority of residents of Latvia speak Russian natively. That might have been correct had the USSR existed a bit longer, but history took a different turn. "Most Latvian businesses, especially in the Riga area, will happily serve you in Russian." That would be a more neutral and correct statement appropriate for this context. Also relevant would be how Latvian government is publicly angling for Belarussian businesses willing to relocate to Latvia [1]. Regarding native tongues in Latvia... Currently, over 30% of Latvian residents speak Russian, Belarussian or Ukrainian natively, versus 62.3% Latvian. In Riga, the number of Russian, Belorussian or Ukrainian native speakers rises to over 43% [0] versus 47.1% Latvian. [0] http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080.px/ http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080.... [1] https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-businesses-offered-fast-track-relocation-to-latvia.a372143/ https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-busin...
  - sam_lowry_ 6y ago
    Having being in Latvia a few times and knowing the historical context... I distrust Latvian language statistics. Still, even those statistics admit that Riga is mostly Russian-speaking [1]. This is where the IT crowd would land, anyway. [1] https://www.csb.gov.lv/en/statistics/statistics-by-theme/population/census/search-in-theme/1442-home-latvian-spoken-62-latvian-population https://www.csb.gov.lv/en/statistics/statistics-by-theme/pop...
Karliss 6y ago
Most of those IT workers probably know Russian and English languages. Knowing both of them you can both get an IT work in Eastern European countries and deal with everyday life. I don't think language barrier is that big of a problem for them.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nine_k 6y ago
  English will get you pretty far in the daily life in Western Europe, too, in places like Sweden, or Netherlands, or cities like Berlin. (Not in France, of course.)
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
walshemj 6y ago
From experience working with coworkers from Belarus / Poland that's not a huge problem.

deleted 6y ago

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