Migratory processes as mirrored by the transformations: border regions in Russia

Mankind has become a witness of force majeureof globalization in the XX-XXI centuries. Globalization processes have covered all the spheres of public life and they have created a globalsystem of countries and nations interdependence. These processes combined with rapid changes in the political and economic systemswereconducive toa sharp intensification of the international migration flows and they led to the forming of a fundamentally new migration situation in the world.

The process of population shift in the regions of Russiatook place against the background of the general deterioration of demographic indicators.Migration as a socioeconomic phenomenon acquired a dual char-acter.On the one hand, it created a “washout effect”of labour forceas far asthe great body of thequalified staffmigrated to the regions and countries where there were better opportunities for the realization of human capital. The loss of skilled labour force was virtually irreplaceable for the regions exported the migrants. On the other hand, migration created a “substitution effect” of labour force becausethe less-educated workers whoheld unskilled jobs migratedto the exporting regions. Thus, the migration of the Russian working people abroad was replaced by the migration of the low-skilled labor forcefrom the Commonwealth of Independent States (about 270 000 people annually) [21].

The migration processes in Russia are characterized by considerable regional differences. The settlementpolarization is associated with the expansion of migratory outflow and the localization of zones of migratory inflows. The migrants usually choose the regions whose economies are attractive for their labour activities.

The ability of the regional economy to generate theefficient jobs is dependent on its struc-ture.The experience of the last decade shows that Russian economy which is guided by the raw materials does not contribute to these processes. Many Russian scientists(S. Guriev, V.Polterovich, V. Tambovtsev) associatethis problemwith the so-called “resource curse” economy. Government and business demand for the incomegeneration by the high-tech sectors reduce, so increment of the new knowledge and highly skilled human capital-bring down.The process of the further human capital’sdegradation leads to the intensification of the migration processesin the highly-developed regional economic systems.

The social and economic problems which arosefrom theoverall restructuring of the state and economic system of Russiain the nineties of XX century,differentiation of the regions according to their social and economic status-predetermined the special nature of the labor migration. The process of the labor migra-tionintensified in the early 1990s due to the collapse of theunited Soviet state. The forced migrations from the former Soviet Union-increased as well as the Jewish and German repatriation rose. The population shiftin the border regions of the former Soviet Union got a special character.

The international labour migration became the common way to adapt the economically active population of the border regionsto the new social and economic conditions andthe way to enhancethe welfare throughalternative or extra income.Imperfect employmentstructure andlabour market characteristicsat the regional levelstrengthen the shift processes of manpower resources and form the international labour market.Social factors of the labour migration in the border region are also important in stimulating of the population’s migration activity.

Institutional conditions of the transboundarylabour migration in modern Russia were produced by the changes in its political and economic regime. The external borders for free movement of goods, finances, resources and people were opened in the early 1990’s.In connection with that fact, international contacts, different ways of cooperation including the sphere of the labour migrationbegan to form. A wide range of new opportunitiesprovided the population of Russia and foreign countries with various forms ofmutually beneficial cooperation.

The globalization influences over the raising of importance of the social factors in the development of the migratory processes [4, p. 194-196] which are associated with the formation and expansion of various systems of social bondings [28, p. 3-14].Creation and improvement of the information and transportation infrastructure directly affects the nature and dynamics of the migration flows.

The employment conditions abroad allow the people in the border regions to increase their personal incomes at the expense ofo-verseas employment. Such types of the labour migration are available for the working population in Russia as long-period permanent wage work,short-term (seasonal) work, frontier migrations (daily crossing the frontier) and episodic work which is associated mostly with the trade and procurement activities.

The labour migration includes different types of migrants. They are highly skilled sci- entists and specialists,people of the mass professions includingthe second-rate and labourintensive industries,officials of the international organizations and multinational companies, family members of labour migrants. In addition to elite migrants and unskilled migrants (they are mostly men) researchers have isolated the special group of the migrants which consists of womenemployed in the service sector and housekeeping service. They meet theneeds of the middle-class populationin the developed countries [9, p. 91-101].

The feminization of themigratory flows has been starting since the 1990’s. It is a peculiarity of the modern stage of the labour migration’sdevelopment [24]. The governments in different countries have to change the controlling mechanisms for the migration processes because the migration flows expand steadily.

The labour migrationhas a high degree of the migratory behaviorflexibility. It has a flexible infrastructurein whole. Contradictions between supranational economic and social objects,processes and institutions, on the one hand, and the national management concepts of these objects, processes and institutions, on the other hand, are becoming more appreciable.

The international labor migration has recently become a part of the world labour marketand an indispensable link in the functioning of the national economies.The migration policies of the western countries are directed towardthe selective reception of the labour migrants in demand, lessening of the disparities of the immigrationstructure and improvement of the total demographic situation [22]. According to the Global Commission of Migration (UNO) Russiaranks second in the world tothe USA by the number of migrants – 13.3 million people.The legal labour migration, which is ordered by the business entities and defined by the quotas of the Russian government, is declining from year to year.How-ever, the illegal labour migration is enormous. According to various sources, its size ranges from 1.5 to 15 million people per year including the migrants from foreign countries(from a few hundred thousand to two million) [25, p. 44; 27, p. 11].

The Russian Federation is a country in transition.This circumstance influences over the migratory exchange with other countries. Russia has been experiencing economic growth over recent years. The economy of our country is being developed; the rate of production is being increased. Ourcountryis coming nearer to the leaders of the world economy.And in this sensethe labour-scarcity situation may be compensated at the expense of the migrants. The labour migration has allowed Russia to enter the international labour market andbe-come its active participant[13, p. 36-48]. It is important to note that the globalization of the world economyhas strengthenedthe mutual cooperation in this field andhas brought both positive and negative aspects of the international migration [10].

The North-West regions of the Russian Federation have the necessary prerequisites for the development of the interregional cooperation because they have a great potential, powerful timber industry complex and rich mineral resources.Geographical location of the North-West District has predetermined the development oftransboundaryrelations. The total area of this region is about 1800 thousand square meters. There are the regions bordering the Baltic Sea here. The only borderwith the country which is a member of the European Union is located here. North-West includes uncoordinated economic subregions, which doesn’t create the common free market zone. Enlargement of the European Union in the Baltic Sea region strengthens the EU attention to the issues ofborder cooperation with Russia.

The main role of the Russian border NorthWestDistrict in the European system of labor division consists in functioning as a transit in all its diversity.Transboundarytransport and telecommunicationprojectsarepriority in the investment policy both in the Russian Federation and in the European Union.A vast territory of the North-West District is rich in natural resources but it hasn’t a developed transport and communication infrastructure. Today it is a deterrent of social and economic development; it isn’t an advantage.Objectively, the numbers of regions of the Russian North-West District have the necessary prerequisites for the development of interregional economic cooperation. These prerequisitesinclude the great economic potentials of Saint-Petersburg and the Kalin-ingradOblast as well as the unique mineral deposits in the Murmansk Oblast.

The practice of migration processes also becomes very specific because of the special nature of border relations between the NorthWest region of Russiaand the CIS and the far abroad countries. The main trends of the migration processes in Russia are the following.

The first tendency is the following: Russia is becoming an active consumer of the migrations from the CIS countries. According to the Federal Migration Service, the total number of foreigners working in Russia in the first half of 2009 amounted to 1770.1 thousand people; this rate decreased by 82.8 thousand people (4,5%) as compared with the rate in 2008. Foreign workers came to the territory of the Russian Federation from 145 countries around the world [17].In general,the number of foreign people working in Russiaincreased 11.4 times as many for the period of 2000 – 2008 (from 213 293 people in 2000 to 2 425 921 people in 2008) [16, 23].The major suppliers of the labor force to Russia from the CIS countries are traditionally Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The main foreign suppliers are China, Vietnam, Turkey and North Korea (tab. 1).

Among the CIS citizens arriving in Russia there is a category of the labour migrants who go to Russia for a certain period in order to earn and then they go home. These people have a rather weak motivation to be resettled. They work in Russia because the wages are higher here than in their countries.These migrant workers are mainly employed in agriculture,building, transport and timber industries. Theyfillun-skilledworkingpositions.

The migration growth in Russia amounted to 242 107 personsin 2008, 129 194 people in the first half of 2009 [19] and 89 574 people in the same period in 2010[20]. In 2008 the migration growth in the North-West Federal Districtamounted to11.4% of total rate of the migration growth in Russia; it amounted to 9.6% in the first half of 2009 and 8.2% in 2010.

Table 1. The number of the foreign workers employed in Russia, thousands people [16, 23]

	1995	2000	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Total	281.1	213.3	377.9	460.4	702.5	1014.0	1717.1	2425.9
Fromthe CIS countries:	134.4	106.4	180.5	221.9	343.7	537.7	1152.8	1780.0
Azerbaijan	1.3	3.3	6.0	9.8	17.3	28.3	57.6	76.3
Armenia	6.1	5.5	10.0	17.0	26.2	39.8	73.4	100.1
Georgia	7.0	5.2	3.2	3.8	4.3	4.9	4.8	4.2
Kazakhstan	2.1	2.9	4.0	4.3	4.1	5.0	7.6	10.4
Kyrgyzstan	0.7	0.9	4.8	8.0	16.2	33.0	109.6	184.6
The Republic of Moldova	6.7	11.9	21.5	22.7	30.6	51.0	93.7	122.0
Tajikistan	1.5	6.2	13.6	23.3	52.6	98.7	250.2	391.4
Uzbekistan	3.6	6.1	14.6	24.1	49.0	105.1	344.6	642.7
The Ukraine	94.2	64.1	102.6	108.6	141.8	171.3	209.3	245.3
From the far abroad countries:	146.6	106.9	197.4	238.5	358.7	476.1	563.8	645.0
Vietnam	3.2	13.3	35.2	41.8	55.6	69.1	79.8	95.2
China	26.5	26.2	72.8	94.1	160.6	210.8	228.8	281.7
North Korea(DPRK)	15.0	8.7	13.2	14.7	20.1	27.7	32.6	34.9
Turkey	36.2	17.8	37.9	48.0	73.7	101.4	131.2	130.5

It is noteworthy that the trend to increasing of migration growth was fixed in the Vologda Oblast, the Kaliningrad Oblast, the Leningrad Oblast, theNovgorod Oblast and in St. Peters-burg.The migration growth was particularly significant in St. Petersburg. It amounted to 13.6% of total migration growth in Russia in 2008. This figure is higher than the same rate in the North-West Federal District (9.9% in 2009).At the same timethere is a tendency to the negative migration balance in some regions. The highest rates ofthe negative migration balance were fixed in the Komi Republic, the Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Murmansk Oblast.

The Russian Federation is a leaderin different areasof cross-country cooperation with themajority ofthe former USSR countries. Economic and social level of the CIS countries is lower than in Russia. Although their economic systems are also developing andwell-being of the people is gradually increasing. The migration exchange with the CIS countrieshas the greatest quantification among the international migration flows in Russia.The peculiarity of the migratory movement between Russia and the CIS countries is the fact that Russia has become thecenter of gravityfor the migrants from the CIS countries including the labour migrants. Most migrant were working in the building organizations in period from 2007 till the first half of 2009 – 41.2% (average rate over three years); 17.6 % migrants were employed in the wholesale and retail trade,vehicles repair, personal and household goods repair; 11.8% migrants were employed in the mining and manufacturing sectors; 6.9% – in agriculture, hunting and forestry; 4.1% – in transport and communications [17, 23].

The migration exchangewith the CIS coun-triesis the most preferable forRussia because of the following reasons: the common language, culture and education which were inherited from the common past of the unified state. Russia canreceive up to one million migrant-sannually and provide them with work and accommodation [3, p. 8]. Although the Russians are more popular in the labour mar- ket than the citizens from other countries [2, p. 15-16]. The majority of the labour migrants come to Russia from such CIS countries as the Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. There is a rather interesting trend in the migration from the near and far abroad countries. As a rule, there is a positive migration balance in the regions receiving the foreign labour force from the CIS countries and the Baltic States. The positive migration balance amounted to 373689 people totally in Russia in the period from 2008 till the first half of 2009 [19, 21] and 89 022 people in the first half of 2010 [20]; the positive migration balance in the North-West FederalDistrict amounted to 9036 people in the period from 2008 till the first half of 2009 [19, 21] and 8 539 peoplein the first half of 2010 [20].

The second tendency is the following: the stable trend to decrease the number of the labour migrants coming from the far abroad countries has formed in recent years.Thanks to globalizationa lot of Russian regions have begun to attract the labour migrants from the near and far abroad countries. They have become the sources of the replenishmentof manpower resources[6]. But there are problemsassociated with receiving of the low-skilled labour force anditsintegrationintothesocialandeconomic-systems [7].It was caused by a sharp increase in the number of the migrants from the former USSR countries,as well as from the far abroad countries such as Vietnam, China, North Korea and Turkey(average proportion of migrants has been increased in 7 times for the period from 2000 till 2008). In addition,the role of the illegal migration and illegal employment of foreign workers has been increased in Russia [12].

The second trend: recentlythere has been formed a stable trend to decrease the number of migrant workers coming from several foreign countries. Thanks to globalization, many Russian regions have started to attract labor migrants from the near and far abroad and they became one of the sources of manpower [6]. But there are problems connected with hiring of low-skilled workers and their integration into the

Table 2. Distribution of Russian citizens who left for work abroad (by countries, people) [23]

	2000	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Total	45760	47637	56290	60926	65747	69866	73130
To Europe	22102	16304	16940	21936	19766	21071	20834
The United Kingdom (Great Britain)	6771	2056	1792	2428	1630	1571	1406
Germany	4189	2484	3058	3272	3419	3904	3493
Greece	3242	3122	3170	2884	2221	2639	2498
Malta	3063	3258	3517	4424	4416	3752	4487
To Asia:	17354	21340	21169	19135	17038	16784	17787
Hong Kong	479	389	166	207	226	262	359
Cambodia	1184	3998	2215	1731	1849	2550	4036
Cyprus	8218	9875	10087	10492	8875	8232	8131
Mongolia	82	181	1108	704	360	466	827
Singapore	1978	1056	2119	839	972	980	1093
Japan	1754	3107	3886	2619	1603	2153	1257
To Africa:	1516	2612	5828	4455	4484	4694	4807
AmongthemLiberia	1239	1979	3262	3955	3963	4158	4246
To America:	4763	6888	11579	14301	23081	23710	26236
Bahamas	337	437	735	815	1877	2576	2554
Panama	1180	1084	887	1090	1590	1860	2563
The USA	1135	2408	6073	7409	13457	11542	13698
To Australia and Oceania	25	493	774	1099	1378	3607	3466

social and economic systems [7]. It was caused by sharp increase in the number of migrants from the former USSR countries as well as from foreign countries: Vietnam, China, Korea and Turkey (over the period of 2000 – 2008 the portion of migrants has increased an average of 7 times). Besides Russia has increased the role of illegal migration and illegal employment of foreign workers [12].

For example, for the period from 2008 tillthe first half of 2009-s the migration decline in aggregate over two years made up 3288 people in Russia and 1210 people in the North-West Federal District. The greatest rate of migration loss was registered in the Republic of Karelia – (-447) people. Here we mean the migratory exchange between Russia and the far abroad.

The migratory increase (per 10000 people) calculated by the Federal State Statistics Service allows us to analyze the trends in migration relations between Russia and the countries of near and far abroad.

For example, in Russia as a whole over the period of 1990 – 2000 there was positive migra- tion balance. The highest rate was recorded in 1995 (44 points). However, in subsequent years it fell to 6 points (in 2003).

It is noteworthy that the lowest negative migration rates were registered in the Komi Republic, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions.

At the same time these rates were positive in some regions (Kaliningrad, Leningradskaya region, the city of St. Petersburg) in the period of 1990 – 2007.

The third trend: Russia is an active migration provider for foreign countries. The main flow of migration from Russia goes to the countries of Europe, Asia and America. However, during 2000 - 2008 the scale of migration by the countries of the world has changed significantly. During the eight-year period the number of migrant workers who go to the UK decreased by 4.8 times, while the number of migrants travelling to the USA increased by 12 times and to the Bahamas – by 7.6 times, to Australia and Oceania – by 138.6 times (tab. 2).

As a rule, the bulk of the migrants who go abroad to work is workers – from 21643 to 26347 people (sailors, skippers, sub-skippers, boatswains, engine-drivers of all kinds, motor mechanics and their assistants, bakers, cookery experts, cooks), while the number of specialists who go abroad is much less (from 13663 to 19672 people) [23]. The main share of the intellectual workers are experts in the field of techniques, technologies (engineers, technicians, mechanics, laboratory assistants, town planners, transport nodeschedulers), specialists in the field of culture and art (librarians, lecturers, tour guides, interpreters, bibliographers, critics, artists, directors, actors, composers, writers, musicians, singers).

In most cases the Russian immigrants going abroad have secondary vocational education (about 40% of the total migrant population). But the share of migrants with higher professional education is also significant (30%).

The length of migrants’work activities abroad is usually less than 6 months (50281 people in 2008).

In the process of international exchange of labour migrants Russia is characterized by the following trends:

• •    since the beginning of 1990-s highly skilled migrant workers continue going to the developed countries and this outflow weakens the capacity of development of the domestic economy, but lately the number of such migrants is reduced and there are some cases of the reverse movement of migrants;

• •    low-skilled Russian workers go abroad to work, their work in secondary and tertiary economy sectors of foreign countries is of seasonal or medium term nature;

• •    migrant workers from CIS countries and some bounder countries of the Asian region-come to Russia;guest workers occupy labor market nichesmainly in the construction, timber industry, agriculture and services and they are also engaged in business;

• •    illegal migration is of particular importance, according to various estimates it makes up several million people annually. They are labor migrants having come to Russia in violation of Russian legislation, illegally staying in the country and working without formal permission [8].

At present the international migration exchange in Russia can be described as uneven because the quality of human resources is declining in the country and highly skilled specialists are replaced by less qualified ones [1, p.44]. However, there is a paradoxical thing: there is a lack of specialists with middle andinitial level of vocational training. They could fill up a growing number of vacancies of this qualification. Today Russia has no longer its own demographic resources to make up sparsely populated areas with people. The problem is aggravated by spontaneous inflow of migrants from neighboring states, and itis fraught with a range of threats without being legally regulated and properly controlled by the state. The migratory flows from the outlying and sparsely populated areas are usually directed to the central and southern areas of the country with favorable natural conditions or to the areas with relatively high social and economic development [5, pp. 75-83].

Recently labour migration has become a widespread phenomenon among the residents of small towns and rural areas [15]. Small Russian city with the population of several tens of thousands of people usually have a singleindustry structure of the economy, i.e.an enterprise forming a company town ensures jobs for the most of the working population. During the transition to a market economy many of these enterprises are faced with serious difficulties, as a result of this people actually lost their jobs. In these conditions household members were forced to look for a job in larger cities, where thanks to the development of private business there were new working places.

A grave situation in the labor market has urged people to the commercial migration and the exit trade [18, pp.39-73]. In connection with changes in the economic situation in Russia in the late 1990’s the overseas trip of “shuttle traders” were replaced by trips to the major wholesale markets in capital cities for subsequent sale of goods in the regional retail markets. The scale of such migration in the small towns reaches 30% of all households in which at least one family member is engaged in exit trade [26]. Besides the commercial sphere the migrant workers are engaged in construction as blue-collar workers, in various services, in transport, in timber and agricultural enterprises.

There is a similar situation in rural areas where the problem of migration of young people is particularly acute. After completing their studies in big cities young people tend to stay there, not to return to their villages and settlements. Employment difficulties, housing problems andlack of real prospects make young people look for a job in larger settlements. Job search in towns and cities is a striving of not only young people but also another part of able-bodied population dissatisfied with low wages and total lack of work in the rural labour market.

As a rule, the flows of migrant workers are directed from village to city, from small towns to larger centers and capital cities. We observe some kind of redistribution of population in favor of large cities where the employabilities-mentopportunities are extended. The return flows from cities to villages are practically absent and it is fraught with the latent threat for the country’s economy due to increased sectoral imbalances in the economy. One of the limiting factors for potential migrants are social costs connected with legal and social vulnerability for migrants, with health problems and deterioration in family relationships [11, pp. 47-56].

Trans-boundary labour migration is determined by social and economic tensions caused by the structural shortcomings of locallabour market,the unemployment of economically active population and the absence of real sources of welfare for certain groups of population.

* * *

Thus, it’s obvious that solution of the labour migration problems in the near-boundary Russian regions is of rather strong interest to the authorities and the general public butthe labour migration abroad still needs attention. The main emphasis of the public interests is placed on the arriving migrants, their number, adaptation, employment and other problems. When studying the problem of outflow of migrant workers abroad it becomes clear that there is no systematic statistics about the border regions, there is no regulation of these processes that occur quite spontaneously. There is only a system of mediation for employment abroad, but it does not cover all migrant workers.

The trans-boundary labour migration in the border regions is connected with a deficit of flexible employment forms, especially for such special employment and occupation categories of citizens as students, employees of government-financed organizations, the unemployed etc. Having a relatively small income as well as quite a lot of free time on vacation, they are forced to seek additional sources of income. Regionaloccupation pattern is not always able to respond to such needs of the economically active population. On the one hand, despite the sufficient number of vacancies, the supply of labourforce for the short term doesn’t satisfy the employers, and on the other hand, the conditions of the employers don’t satisfy potential employees in terms of pay and conditions of short-term work. Educational services to potential migrant workers for employment at home and abroad can help to solve this problem.

Economic factors of labour migration in the border region are supplemented with some additional important factors connected with social, cultural and educational opportunities available for labourmigration. In the framework of trans-boundary cooperation there are some prospects for further development of labour exchange. Russia is being involved in the global economic ties more and more, and this fact will help to develop the labour migration of skilled manpower. At the same time the work abroad is a good prospect for students during their holidays, as it allows them to get additional revenue and to meet their needs for educational and cultural development.