The head of Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) mission in Armenia, Svetlana Stepantsova, tells VK about her organization’s work.
- What are the purposes of the FMS program in Armenia?
- The main purpose of the program is to help Russian repatriates from Armenia who decided to permanently return to Russia. But that’s not the only purpose. This year is the 15th anniversary of our mission’s existence in Armenia. We render various services to the Armenian population, including consultations on Russian migration legislation.
The program for helping our compatriots return from abroad was launched in 2007. But there are virtually no ethnic Russians in Armenia, so Armenian citizens started coming to us in the framework of this program.
Our Service has missions in almost all the CIS countries and in Latvia as well. I would like to stress that we’re talking about voluntary return to Russia, and our work corresponds to all international standards.
- A certain sector of the Armenian mass media criticizes your department and even claims that your program is allegedly aimed at populating Russia’s North and Siberia. What is the actual geography of your work in Russia? Where do the majority of the repatriates settle?
- The allegation is totally false. Today there are more than 30 districts receiving re-settlers, and they’re not only eastern or northern districts. All of them offer us lists of open vacancies and we offer these regions and vacancies to those who come to us.
As for statistics, during the 4 years this program has been running we consulted 31,656 people, and 2,166 people were permanently settled in Russia. We admit only requests for permanent residency. Geographically, repatriates from Armenia prefer the Kaliningrad District, so now its potential for our program is almost exhausted. Kaluga, Lipetsk and Voronezh are also popular, as well as Primorye, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk.
- And what is the source of this media campaign against you? It is obvious that the volume of migration is in no way threatening.
- I don’t fully understand it myself. These allegations are unfounded and incompetent. I think there’s a sort of Russo-phobic implication to them. I would like to ask those who lead this campaign the same question. They say we favor a brain drain from Armenia. But it is obvious that good specialists are most requested everywhere, and Russia is not an exception. And does anyone count how many specialists leave Armenia for Europe or the US?
We monitor the progress of the people we helped resettle. And most of them gain Russian citizenship in half a year. Yes, Armenia and Russia have favorable terms of partnership. Is this so bad? I’m sure that Armenia is interested in this kind of relationship. I mean a visa-free regime. I don’t think that even those who criticize FMS would like our countries to have the same kind of visa-problems as Russia and Georgia.
As for the general statistics, 44% of those who left Armenia for Russia have a higher education, 30% have specialized higher education, 25% finished schools. So is it really a brain drain? I don’t think so. And our program has age restrictions too.
- When does the term of the program end and will it be prolonged?
- Now the program is expected to run till the end of 2012. But our mission has its tasks beyond this particular program. We hope to reach an agreement on increasing the volume of labor migration from Armenia to Russia. We are working the legal terms out now. The advantages of this new regulation are obvious: labor migrants from Armenia will be protected by solid law; they will have health insurance and a stable and legal income.
Interview by David Stepanyan. Exclusively to VK.
