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Comment by Galanwe | Hacker News Reader

This is stupid, and wrong. I worked several years in Estonia (at Skype) and I would say that more than 50% of programmers are from foreign countries. Mainly russia, but also Ukraine, latvia, Czech republic...

In Tallin, half the population is Russian, or native russian speaker.

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I'm an Estonian and would like to comment this with the results from the census: Tallinn has 55% Estonians, 36% Russians(who mostly live in specific sleeping/cheap/"slum" districts), and others.

I'm glad you raised this to counter the mis-information posted by the parent. I also worked for several years in Tallinn (I'm half-Estonian, half-Australian), and the information provided by the parent ss simply not true. This reinforces my belief many ex-pats live in a bit of a bubble, especially if they don't learn the local language or try and integrate more.

Back OT - I can keep my Estonian business ticking over from Australia entirely via the internet. I have a local (Estonian) accountant, but using my Estonian ID card I can digitally sign documents that need 'sending' or I can open such documents sent to me from government departments. Such possibilities really much life much easier as regards documentation, tax returns etc.

Also the percentage of foreign programmers is high in international companies. Local or small IT companies mostly hire Estonians - for no specific reason imho, maybe just to keep the atmosphere native.

That is racism.

I didn't say they turn down foreigners, they just don't get applications from them. Also, Latvians and Ukrainians and such are white.

Nationalism is a distinct "ism" from racism.

It's a form of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism#Ethnic_nationalism

Do you know what racism, or even race is? You can be white but not Estonian, how does racism apply there?

What is "white"? Why do you need do differentiate "Estonians" from other kinds of people?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism#Ethnic_nationalism

There is a history of racism in Estonia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division...

It's not racism. On the contrary, what you have shown, is ignorance of the facts on the ground.

They work with what they have available. Knowing Eastern European companies well, they are tight on funds, so they cannot spend anything for international headhunting. Also, locals are cheaper - if they want to earn more, they will move to the West. The smaller companies are happy, that they are surviving at all.

Hey, Skyper, greetings from another one! Skype Tallinn Engineering, as you well know, grew from the small all-Estonian core team to a ~500 people org by the time I left. The team was very international and many good programmers were from elsewhere but never a majority.

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