The number of Armenians getting Russian passports has been growing since 2005. In 2001, 19,267 Armenians were granted Russian citizenship, in 2005 their number doubled, and in 2009 the number tripled. Besides Russia, Armenian migrants prefer France, Poland, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Greece.
At the moment Yerevan is concerned with active implementation of the Russian state programme on support of voluntary resettlement of compatriots living in Armenia to the Russian Federation. The programme came into operation after Medvedev’s order in 2006, in Armenia it was started in 2007. The choice of place of living and working is limited to Siberia and distant peripheral regions of Russia. There, migrants are given $4000-$8000 for household arrangements. If a family lives in the region less than 2 years, it must return the sum of money to the state.
Six weeks ago Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan expressed his concern about the migration of citizens from Armenia to Russia within the programme 'Compatriots'. This issue was discussed at a meeting of the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental committee in Rostov-on-Don. The chairman of the migration service under the Ministry of territorial management, Gagik Yeganyan, stated that during the four years of the Compatriots project functioning, 780 families, or 1897 people, had left Armenia.
The 'Compatriots' programme is heavily criticized by the social initiative Khima (Now), representatives of which demand a stop to implementation of the programme in Armenia.
Meanwhile, according to the ambassador of Russia to Armenia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, Armenians “leave voluntarily, but there are some people who want to gain profit, speculating on the migration of citizens from Armenia to Russia.” This is so, but the migration flow from Armenia weakens Russia's ally in the South Caucasus, which is not favourable for Moscow.
In this context, in September the government adopted an agreement on using the labour force of Armenia in the United Arab Emirates. The document stipulates that the UAE pay for transport tickets of Armenian migrant workers and control the obligations of employees. Similar agreements were signed last autumn with Qatar and Russia.
These agreements, and the absence of a serious programme on economic development, including support for small- and medium-sized businesses, provide reasons to think that the government is providing a policy aimed at labour force export. The economy is still based on private transfers. It presupposes citizens working abroad sending money to their families in Armenia. According to economic expert Vaagan Khachataryan, many people live in Armenia on money sent from abroad. The Central Bank plays on the dram’s correlation to foreign currencies, for example, it understates the dollar and euro rates artificially.
That is why the programme 'Compatriots', aimed at resettling migrants from Armenia to Russia with their families, is not to Yerevan’s liking. Resettlement of a whole family shuts out money transmission to Armenia.
Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK.
