Estonians abroad stuck there due to trivialities

Photo: Erik Prozes

Born in Stockholm and in Estonia since age of three, Illimar Lepik von Wirén (25), an EU Master’s student at University of Tartu European College, is back from a 15-days trip to major European and North-American cities to meet Estonians abroad and find out what keeps them there. And when they intend to return.

As Estonians glance at homeland from the distance, what strikes their eye?

Meeting Estonians in Brussels, I remember a guy saying – he’s also lived in Paris and Germany – that it is interesting there of course and the salaries are higher than in Estonia, but what is lacking is the joie de vivre, the joy of life and the youthful spark. He underlined how, in various European societies, people have become increasingly passive, the overall feeling of security has polished off the sharper edges.

What also stood out meeting the people was that, as compared to the large nations, Estonia has the advantage – being so small and the state rather thin – that people here are able to grasp more areas of life. One must be a Jack of many trades. If a person employed in public sector in UK or Germany spends the first ten years pouring coffee and the next decade printing out papers, in Estonia young people immediately get to important and responsible positions. Those that have worked at UN or dealt with cyber issues noted that, at international discussions, those representing other countries are aged 50–60 while Estonians are 30–35.

And yet, despite the cheer and chance to rapidly succeed, people are leaving Estonia. In the conversations, did you get why?

Here, we need to differentiate the viewpoint of Estonia and of those that have gone abroad. The Estonian angle is a bit bitter; we panic. Why are people leaving? Negative labels are stuck to them – like «refugees of comfort» – and they are derided for taking a bad decision and betraying the Estonian state as they opted to move abroad.

I did not hear a uniform reason for leaving: like that it’s bad in Estonia and the salaries are lousy. Almost never was the reason financial. While in Estonia they say people are leaving to make bigger money, Estonians abroad did not speak about that. 

But they did mention something critical about Estonia, didn’t they?

Those that have lived abroad for a longer while saw Estonia in a light very positive – and a whole lot more positive than those who live here. Having personally experienced that live abroad isn’t easy, that the good salary does not come easily, that social problems exist there as well, plus the huge bureaucracy and the IT-sphere not as developed as in Estonia. In the UK, for instance, they still ask for your fax number or they want to pay with a check, at which Estonians roll their eyes. Very quickly, Estonia has managed to make live a lot easier with the fast Internet and other technological solutions, so it has become a granted, an ingrained habit. But you often only find out once deprived of that. 

How often did you spot the disappointment that live abroad was not as they imagined?

This was mainly among the young. While living in Estonia, they had been pessimistic concerning Estonia, that the salaries are not as high as elsewhere, that it is more interesting abroad and the climate is better. But, having lived abroad awhile and then returning to Estonia, their attitude has radically changed. They say they had a very interesting experience in England, USA or Australia, but it was hard to find a job and once they found it the working conditions weren’t always good. And it was also hard to find a place to live and it cost a lot; making a living was not at all easier than in Estonia, one had to even toil more at it; and, in half a year, they begun to miss the friends in Estonia and the family. It is natural for people to be unable to appreciate things before they are deprived from them.

How much home is there, do you think, that the Estonians freshly abroad will soon return?

The attitude in Estonians abroad towards Estonia is mostly positive, they are very patriotic over there and take part in the local Estonian events i.e. the major trouble is solved: there’s no need to convince them to care for Estonia. But it’s often all kinds of trivialities and petty problems why they are not returning. These issues are largely for Estonian state to solve.

For instance, Canadian Estonians cannot use their driving licence in Estonia as, allegedly, Estonia does not recognise driving licences issued by provinces. For Estonians in Brussels, it is a major concern how they’d get their child in a school or kindergarten in Estonia. Several of them said they have had to use personal contacts or support the school financially. Meaning: to return to Estonia, one needs to do some trickery... In New York I heard how, while there, people have increased in wealth and would like to invest it into Estonia. An individual said he was interested in agriculture and would like to grow a certain crop, but the issue was how to get the information from the state what Estonia needed the most.

We need to create a link between the needs of the state and the skills of Estonians abroad, and their contact networks. Estonians abroad are rather enthusiastic, but not so enthusiastic as to daily enquire, next to other work, how to help Estonia. They’d be willing to help, if it were made easier. I think the state is currently not too active dealing with the issues of Estonians abroad.

The state has arranged the campaign «Bring Talent Home/Talendid koju!». How do they look at that abroad?

As the slogan was brought fourth some years back, it at least creates some ground for developing contacts. But many think it remained just that, a mere slogan with not much practical value behind it for Estonians abroad to use. And some said, provokingly, that as they are not talents, they must obviously remain in New York.

The slogan might be worded differently: all who wish to return are welcome, not just those that gave graduated from four important universities with Doctor’s degree.

In Estonia, we occasionally burst into the debates about how to bring in valuable working force from third countries. It seems like this is discussed even more than how to lure back our own. Where should we begin, with our own?

First, the petty legal problems ought to be solved which make live uncomfortable for those that return. Like those have a partner abroad, they have difficulty getting residence permit for the person. The state has only suggested they should marry. But do people need to marry to get a residence permit?

Also, the state might develop supportive action programmes for the people to return, or for them to continue studies, and facilitate their entry into Estonian labour market. Estonian societies abroad have good information about who does what. From them, the state would get lots of information if they’d actively tackle the issue.

What do you feel, how willing are the Estonians abroad to actually return in near future?

The older people, those over 70, say that though they visit Estonia when possible to see relatives, for practical reasons they are not going to return as they are either in nursing homes or under the care of their doctors.

The young who are in university age say they are surely going to return once they have completed their Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral studies abroad and maybe gotten some practice, to engage it all in Estonia. For those that have a very specific specialty, the return is more complex of course – like the guy that has studies aerodynamics and has worked for Rolls-Royce.

The age group in between is split into two. Those that have found a mate and have children say returning to Estonia largely depends on what the foreign living partner thinks. By the way, many of these have begun to study Estonian. I believe that those that have not decided yet can effectively be influenced. It the return is easy, they’d rather return.

The other part of in-between-aged say they will not return before retirement as they are working abroad. These, probably, are the ones strongly influenced by salary. 

How to use those who do not want to return but are willing to invest for Estonia’s good?

I saw that many want to help and not in a patronising and haughty way that we are wealthy and we’ll throw you some money. This is not true! If people are willing to help along we should not let it go waste. While on this trip, I always had the thought in my mind who nobody in Estonia is dealing with this issue. 

We need to realise that there are no foreign and domestic Estonians, there’s just Estonians. If we begin to label Estonians, ill-will may develop like at the beginning of the 1990ies that why did the foreign Estonians return. 

Many humbly asked me if they were allowed to have a say about Estonian domestic issues at all. Some have probably been told don’t you intervene, this is none of your business. We should not allow such attitudes like it is a sin or a crime to have been away from Estonia for two years or have decided to remain abroad. This does not equal treason or not being Estonian any longer. In a democratic country, people travel and migrate and no democratic country may hold people back. Otherwise, we turn North-Korea.

How do the security issues, next to Russia, affect thoughts about return?

I could not feel the impact. Nobody noted they are not returning as it could be dangerous here. But this is such a personal topic, who knows maybe they are unwilling to express such fears before others.

As we talked, national defence and security issues always surfaced. They enquired how Estonia would defend itself, should something start happening. They were very supportive of mandatory conscription. From Canada, just recently, two men had on their own initiative travelled to Estonia just to do conscript service here. After that, they returned to Canada.

How able are Estonians abroad to maintain the Estonian language and culture, passing it on to children? 

It’s the easiest in Toronto, Canada, with one of the largest Estonian societies, a Tartu College and the Estonian House. While I was in Toronto, 600 Estonians there had decided to take a Caribbean cruise! Over there, they’ve managed to keep the Estonian life very active as the academic organisations are even enrolling new young members; in other places, this is not done.

The society is also highly active in England with about 10,000 Estonians dwelling there, especially in London, and in Brussels where people have a mailing list through which they solve all kinds of issues if these arise.

Yes, may have the problem, especially in the two-language families about how and where the kids could learn Estonian. There are Estonian schools in London, as well as Stockholm and Toronto; in other places, regrettably, the parents have to see for the language themselves. I think that Estonian state could at least offer interactive Estonian language and history study through the computer, having an e-school and e-state.

What were the conclusions you arrived at regarding the future of Estonians abroad?

I got a very good impression and experience, as none of the Estonians that I met was negative, and there was no such talk as we at times have in Estonian media that it is bad here. All said they were planning to return or help along and participate some other way. But let’s not assume this is the way it will always be. If Estonia shows no interest towards them, then maybe the Estonians abroad will indeed begin to think that they are probably unimportant: they’ll just quietly celebrate the Anniversary of the Republic somewhere and that’ll be it. Right now is a favourable time for Estonian state to cooperate with them. But this may not be an artificial process, so that we call people back through some programme we invent. People need to be gladly willing to come back, it must be good for them to live in Estonia.

Who should assume the responsibility to create closer links with Estonians abroad, not just carrying it in their hearts?  

Firstly, this should be a task for the government and foreign ministry. True, the foreign ministry is already involved with it, but the issue also needs a political push to impact governmental decisions for it to me more than slogans. Surely the Office of the President can help, as these people are often abroad and meet the Estonians there.

And we do have 150,000 – 200,000 Estonians dwelling abroad which is much more than farmers, say. Meanwhile, we do have an agricultural ministry but nobody is directly dealing with Estonians abroad.

Exactly – almost a fifth of Estonians are living abroad; at the moment, they are young, in working age, positively geared. Amazingly, they haven’t been dealt with actively. If the state will not deal with them, they may disappear or  run out of the enthusiasm while there. 

Travelling with blizzard

Illimar Lepik von Wirén covered close to 18,000 kilometres doing the Tallinn – Brussels – Köln – Düsseldorf – Stockholm – New York – Toronto – New York – Stockholm – Helsinki – Tallinn trip. The whole time, he was relentlessly stalked by a non-stop snow storm due to which the journey was nearly cut several times.

«In Germany, the train broke down and the people commanded to exit,» he recalls. «We had to walk along the highway and hitchhike the 30 kilometres to the airport. When travelling from Stockholm to New York, the US East coast was threatened by a blizzard of the century. My flight was almost the only one that landed there. Due to the blizzard, the flight back was 12 hours late. Unexpectedly, the plane took a stop on Iceland as the pilots’ working time ended. For three hours we waited until the new crew was flown in from Stockholm and Oslo.»

As Mr von Wirén loves to study plane ticket prices, he was so able to plan the budget that only €500 were spent on plane, train and bus trips. «Big trips like this can be done real cheap if one wants to,» he says. «I wanted to prove it does not take €10,000 to put together a long trip like this.»

Having graduated from Gymnasium in Estonia, for four years Mr von Wirén studied politics and English law in England. During the time he took a year off to do conscription in Tapa, Estonia, in anti-aircraft unit. Last August, he returned to Estonia. «It’s interesting abroad, but better in Estonia,» he states.

Recently, he passed reserve officer training and became an Ensign on the Anniversary of the Republic.  

Curriculum vitae

Illimar Lepik von Wirén

Born October 17^th 1989 in Stockholm 

Studied at Universities of  Tartu, Oxford and Essex

Has worked at Government Office, Foundation for Investigating Communist Crimes, European Parliament, Estonian representation at UN, and defence ministry.