My Comments on the Mainor Rector's Article

Today Mr. Andrus Pedai, the rector of the Estonian Mainor University published this article “Rector Andrus Pedai: by rejecting foreign talent, Estonia is moving down the path of nationalization” (translated from Estonian). Since the subject mentioned therein hurts me as I love Estonia and the Baltic as a whole, I decided to write my comment on this.

In regards to the article above and to this related post on LinkedIn, I would like to say the following:

I agree with Mr. Andrus Pedai and I wrote similarly expressing the same issues in my official letter to the rector of Mainor in 2022 and two letters sent to the President’s office in the same 2022. The updates to the Aliens Act from 24.05.2022 allowed the Estonian Government and Ministry of Interior to expel foreign specialists who graduated from Estonian universities. Needless to say, those people had great professional skills, owned profitable businesses, and were Estonian taxpayers. They loved (and love!) Estonia and they were living in Estonia respecting the country’s law, rights, and independence. Now they have all moved to other countries which benefit from their activity… and believe me, those people will not come back to build everything from scratch. The same situation applies to new foreign students, no one is interested in seeing them in Estonia since the officials declare those people can potentially pose a risk to the country. 

Only among our clients who were declined with their right of residence, were highly skilled company owners that summary could pay €1M+ of taxes per year. However, the Estonian Government decided to significantly increase taxes for their own people rather than allow foreign specialists to have businesses in Estonia and generate benefits for the country. 

Who lost from this? You decide… 

It seems to me that the government is interested more in taxi drivers and food delivery workers rather than high-level specialists and professionals who can shift the country to a new highest level in all spheres.

What I think is that such government behavior should not be skipped and must not remain unnoticeable. They must explain why they have chosen this model of country development and prove the validity of that model, and people should decide.

As Kaja Kallas asked lately in regards to the NATO leadership nomination “Are we equals or are we not equals?”… I can reply: “Dear Mrs. Kallas, you will not be equal on the world scene until you treat people equally inside the country”.