Russia’s “soft power” impact in the field of educational migration

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the of Russia‘s “soft power” on the process of educational migration.
The concept of “soft power”, formulated by neoliberalism theorists, is a reflection of the desire of
world powers, including Russia, for geopolitical influence through the spread of education, culture and
language. The relevance of this article is due to the fact that the Russian vector of educational migration
is one of the main ones for Kazakhstani youth; according to statistics, in the 2019/2020 academic year,
more than 70 thousand Kazakhstani students studied at various higher educational institutions in Russia.
The article deals with such issues as the potential of Russian education for positioning in the international
market of educational services; the demographic situation that stimulates migration processes, as well as
the main objectives of the state policy of the Russian Federation to attract educational migrants. Comprehensive
study and analysis of all aspects of educational migration to Russia is an important applied
task for modeling and predicting the consequences of migration of students from Kazakhstan, planning
issues of educational, cultural, scientific and humanitarian cooperation between the Russian Federation
and Kazakhstan in General. This article was prepared in the framework of the MES project “Educational
migration from Kazakhstan: trends, factors and socio-political consequences”.
Key words: «soft power», educational migration, state policy, export of educational services, demographic
factors, educational migration from Kazakhstan.