Soviet union with freedom to emigrate to capitalist countries

I suddenly had a vision of a Soviet Union surviving through the power of remittances. Millions of Russians in the West working the DDD jobs for the capitalists, and sending it back home to Mother Russia.

It worked for Poland during severals years, probably every polish family had a member in the 1970's and the 1980's abroad to send money back...
 
In Chicago, I knew lots of people who escaped from Communist Poland. None of them became disillusioned because life in the West, no matter how hard it was, was much better than it was back home. None of them ever caused any problems, or had a desire to return to Communism.

Instead of mass emigration stopping, we would see more chain migration as once a critical mass of immigrants is reached, those immigrant communities are able to provide more support structure for family members, friends, and old neighbors.

Of course, in actuality, the West would only want to accept so many millions of immigrants and then want to clamp things down. Of course, by then, the entire Communist experiment is discredited and their rule has collapsed, so it's no big deal. Simply move the 1990s forward however many decades.

Your first part is irrelevant because they were "escaping" - it's a different thing from being able to leave and come back if they wanted. The attitude of the emigres and the emotional attachment would be different. Secondly, they were Polish, and the attitude towards them is much better than towards Russians. Thirdly, when I said "trouble", I don't mean any kind of communist agitation - I meant blending in with local protest movements, voting for radical parties of all sorts, and participating in criminal activities. True, true and true.

The last paragraph is spot on, and describes the post-Red 90s pretty well. Which is exactly what I described in my semi-serious (at best) analysis. I don't see why you would say you disagree with me and the facts when you're also saying the same thing.
 
This would be a real drain on the USSR, and might have some crackdowns on education, with only those who are "reliable" being sent further on. After all, why pay for years of schooling, then years of technical and scientific training in college, when the student will just fly the coop after graduating?
 
This would be a real drain on the USSR, and might have some crackdowns on education, with only those who are "reliable" being sent further on. After all, why pay for years of schooling, then years of technical and scientific training in college, when the student will just fly the coop after graduating?

Should explain the Putinist educational system pretty well. It's easier for them to import Western specialists than to produce their own.
 
Most people living in the Communist bloc will stay put, at the very least because they don't really have the funds to make their way out of their countries.

Those who are more liable to leave are probably the better educated and well off folks who can afford to travel to the West. Those are the people the Soviet policies were designed to keep in the country. Sure, workers are needed as labor for the factories, but losing doctors and engineers is probably much more costly, at least in the long run.
 
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