Overseas Mongolians and local Mongolians

The government of Mongolia has an ambitious program to bring back bright, talented Mongolians, who are working and living in the USA, Japan and other countries.


Compared to other Asian countries, Mongolia has a relatively small overseas diaspora. When Mongolia started democratic reforms, Mongolian economists tried to find the best economic models to adopt. In reality, it was simple: The Mongolian Government allowed their citizens to travel freely overseas. Many Mongolians started do their own trading businesses, a few of them went for work and some of them went to study.

A tiny amount of these people found jobs overseas. The Mongolian Government wants to attract them and they want to use them for the development of Mongolia. It is very ambitious, but kind of naïve.

One problem is that Mongolia cannot accommodate Mongolian scientists from overseas, especially in the areas of nuclear physics, chemical engineering, biotechnology etc. First, Mongolia does not have a reasonable infrastructure. Second, Mongolia has an old system of sciences, which is mostly Soviet style. Third, most science structures are on the public payroll, which means low payments and poor infrastructure. Therefore, it is too early to say that Mongolia can provide suitable living and working conditions for overseas Mongolians.

It is not reasonable to bring nuclear scientist from his/her lab/university to work for the Mongolian nuclear agency. The Mongolian nuclear agency is a government entity, which does more regulatory rather than scientific work. Very often a nuclear scientist comes as adviser to a minister then ends as vice director in some government agency.

Another situation might be where a promising scientist comes back to teach young Mongolians. A Mongolian university might say that his/her Ph.D. is from Cambridge or Harvard is not enough to be a professor. They might say it is only enough to become a senior lecturer. In order to have a professorship position, he/she should study again or in Mongolia or in Kirgizstan or in Russia. Why Kirgizstan/Russia/Mongolia? Mongolian universities still follow the Soviet model, where you have кандидат наук as Ph.D. in the west, and доктор наук which is called Science Doctor.

Mongolian universities and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences should decide which model is good for them. You cannot sit on two seats: Soviet/Russian and Western. It would be strange to sit on the Soviet/Russian seat and at the same time you will try to live on western grants.

There are some promising jobs for Mongolians in mining, finance and accounting. Of course, it is not always the Mongolian Government and Mongolian companies. Mongolian mining companies are so keen to find overseas Mongolians for their IPOs. Until now, all Canadian, American and Australian companies were listed on stock exchanges, and not any Mongolian company was listed there. Now, even the Mongolian Government wants to do an IPO for Mongolian state owned companies.

There are already several overseas Mongolians who are working in Mongolia for the Government and in Mongolian businesses. For example, one Mongolian Ministry has a senior Mongolian employee with a U.S. Green card. Of course, it is still unclear who pays his package, the Government of Mongolia or some private entity. It is easier when a Mongolian company pays a western level package; it will not be so comfortable when the Government of Mongolia will pay overseas Mongolians six figures package.

There are also many issues when the Government will be involved. First, what can be the approach towards foreign citizenship? Overseas Mongolian with foreign citizenship will be treated as a foreigner or will be treated as a local Mongolian. Second, is the campaign only for overseas Mongolians who will work for the Government? Third, what about Mongolians who will work for foreign companies in Mongolia, such as Ivanhoe Mines etc.? Finally, what about overseas Mongolians who came back by themselves?

The accommodation of overseas Mongolians is a complicated and huge issue. Therefore, it is important that the Mongolian Government is dealing with this problem. But it needs more work and more efforts. We hope that the Government of Mongolia will be able to develop a sophisticated program to bring Mongolians back to their home country.