Migration in the Russian Federation: A Country Profile 2008 - EU ...

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The vast territory of the country, its numerous administrative sub-regions, and ethnically diverse population also create special problems, such as keeping sparsely populated areas inhabited. The long land borders of nearly 20,000 km pose special challenges for controlling migration flows. Also, the common past of the CIS as former Soviet Republics, where the Russian language is generally spoken and a visa-free regime prevails, gives a special characteristic to the nature of migration to and from Russia. Ivakhniouk (2006) 2 lists the following features that characterize much of the “migration system” in the CIS area: • historical ties • geographical proximity, ‘transparent’ borders (visa-free movements) • common transport infrastructure • psychological easiness to move (language, former common territory) • demographic complementarity • mutual interest towards common labour market • large-scale irregular migration • regional cooperation aimed at coordinated migration management. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, about 25 million ethnic Russians found themselves living in the other CIS countries and in the three Baltic Republics. 3 Meanwhile, between 1989 and 2002, Russia received 10.9 million migrants from the former Soviet Republics (the current CIS and the Baltic States). 4 A large part of these Russians had to move under some degree of pressure, with many of them even fleeing conflicts including those in South Ossetia, Abkhasia, and Tajikistan. In Russia, they were therefore called “refugees”’ or “forced migrants” (also “forced resettlers”). During the same period, 4.1 million persons moved in the opposite direction, 5 that is, from Russia to the newly independent former Soviet Republics. Thus, Russia’s net immigration figure with the Former Soviet Union (FSU) Re- 2 Ivakhnyuk, Irina (2006) “Migration in the CIS Region: Common Problems and Mutual Benefits”, An expert paper presented at the International Symposium on International Migration and Development, United Nations Population Division, 28-30 June 2006, Turin, Italy. 3 Tishkov, Valery, Zhanna Zayinchkovskaya and Galina Vitkovskaya (2005) “Migration in the Countries of the Former Soviet Union”, A paper prepared for the Policy Analysis and Research Programme of the Global Commission on International Migration. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 1 Migration in the Russian Federation: A Country Profile 2008
publics in the same period was 6.8 million. These people resettled in numerous communities all around the Russian Federation, and their resettlement was for many years the main priority of the Russian migration authorities, most notably the Federal Migration Service (FMS) created in June 1992. 6 According to Tishkov et al. (2005), since mid-1990s, such forced migration in the CIS region has gradually decreased, while at the same time economically motivated migration has grown. Ivakhniouk (2006) confirms 7 that during the last 15 years, the nature of migration flows in the CIS region shifted “from primarily forced migrations to voluntary economic migrations”. The strongly varying economic, social and political development in the CIS countries has generated large, mostly economic migration flows primarily towards Russia (see more on this in Section 6.4 on labour migration). The increased mobility of various ethnic groups of the Central Asian countries of the CIS, and their employment in the Russian Federation, has led to an expansion of migrant ethnic communities and intensive formation of “new diasporas” resulting in growing ethnic confrontations of a socio-cultural variety. Partly linked to the recent large labour migration, Russia and the whole CIS region have become transit and residence areas for large numbers of irregular migrants, thus new and more effective methods are being sought to deal with the situation. The need for active migration policy has been acknowledged at the highest level. For instance, the then Russian President, Vladimir Putin, announced in March 2005 the need for adjusting Russia’s migration policy as a result of the rapid decline in the country’s population. 8 The President was quoted as saying that the state’s migration policy needs to be adjusted and be closely linked to important tasks of socio-economic development, with the main task at present to create additional conditions for attracting skilled labour. The President also stated that those migrants falling into the shadow economy largely have done so due to the cumbersome procedures in place for obtaining legal employment in Russia. In recent years, Russian authorities have launched numerous proactive migration policy initiatives, in their attempts to increase the recruitment of highly skilled professionals from abroad, as well as to encourage Russian expatriates 6 Voronina (2006). 7 Ivakhnyuk, Irina (2006) “Migration in the CIS Region: Common Problems and Mutual Benefits”, An expert paper presented at the International Symposium on International Migration and Development, United Nations Population Division, 28-30 June 2006, Turin, Italy. 8 Interfax New Report, 17 March 2005. Migration in the Russian Federation: A Country Profile 2008 1
Page 1 and 2: Migration in the Russian Federation
Page 3: Migration in the Russian Federation
Page 6 and 7: list of tables Table 1. Population
Page 9: aCronYM list BSEC Organization of t
Page 12 and 13: concept and has since implemented i
Page 15: exeCutive suMMarY: general assessMe
Page 19 and 20: 1. iMMigrants 1.1. Number of immigr
Page 21 and 22: Table 2. Foreign citizens and state
Page 23 and 24: Table 4. Residence permits issued i
Page 25 and 26: Table 7. Refugees and forced resett
Page 27 and 28: Table 9. Distribution of foreign wo
Page 29 and 30: Table 11. Distribution of foreign w
Page 31 and 32: Table 13. Immigration flows to the
Page 33 and 34: A significant part of migrants movi
Page 35 and 36: 2. eMigrants 2.1. Total number of e
Page 37 and 38: Labour migrants Suspended licenses
Page 39 and 40: Marshall Islands 897 1,121 632 Neth
Page 41 and 42: Table 26. Russian emigration by cou
Page 43 and 44: 3. reMittanCes 3.1. Quantitative as
Page 45 and 46: Destination country Table 30. Remit
Page 47 and 48: Several factors have contributed to
Page 49 and 50: 4. Migrant CoMMunities/Diasporas Wi
Page 51 and 52: • Russian Center of the Internati
Page 53 and 54: 26, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street, 1034
Page 55: 4.2. Migrant communities/diasporas
Page 58 and 59: vious estimates of the Russian Mini
Page 60 and 61: Outflows Based on the records of th
Page 62 and 63: the former Yugoslav Republic of Mac
Page 64 and 65: China-bound human trafficking is di
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6. assessMent anD analYsis of Migra
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• Ministry of Interior 119049, Mo
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• Agreement between the Republic
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• Agreement between the Russian F
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The Federal Migration Service, firs
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• building up of conditions for v
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wherein they are given the right to
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Table 35. Average annual employment
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Table 37. Unemployment by age and e
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1998, the Agreement on cooperation
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The Law creates normative and legal
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The law enforcement authorities of
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Since July 1992, more than 1,623,00
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St. Petersburg Fontanka St. 21, 191
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Kazan- “Fatima” Contact person
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7. annex: soMe aDDitional Migration
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North-western Federal District the
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Annex Table 5. Immigrants at age 14
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