Main trends of the internal migration in Russia

The study of the migration movement and, above all, the internal migration is a popular topic of scientific research, since the uncontrollability of population mobility leads to a change in the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the population, and a violation of the territories’ demographic balance. The aim of the article is to analyze internal migration in Russia, its scale and flows, as well as to highlight its main trends. The study was conducted on the basis of statistical data on the migration movement of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, as well as statistical services of other states. As a result of the study, it was determined that the current migration situation is characterized by an increase in gross migration indicators. Russia can fully compensate for the natural population decline in a demographic recession due to international migration. An ambiguous situation arises in the field of internal migration: the country’s population is characterized by lower territorial mobility in comparison with developed countries, the centripetal migration nature in two forms remains (from village to city, from the periphery to the “center”). There is a decline in the rural population’s share and number, the scale of the “Western drift” is not decreasing, but rather increasing, there is a spatial contraction of Russia’s populated space, “depopulation” of the country’s strategic border areas, from the point of view of international security. All this indicates that the current migration policy does not meet the needs of the country’s economic, social and demographic development and requires adjustment. To achieve this, it is first of all necessary to pursue an active socio-economic policy aimed at ensuring a level playing field for the realization of human potential in each region and creating the necessary conditions for life, as well as improving the quality of information support for government bodies implementing policies in the field of internal migration. The development of a statistical observation system, the inclusion of sociological methods of internal migration studying in it for the purpose of studying all stages of the migration process in detail, and not just the actual resettlement, would allow to develop a consideredmigration policy consistently. The obtained results may be of practical interest to researchers in the field of demography, migration, and sociology, as well as to the representatives of government bodies implementing demographic, migration, and social policies.