Labor migration in Russian regions: issues of economic security provision

In the accepted understanding of the role of labor migration as a leading factor in ensuring the economic security of Russia and its regions, it is necessary to proceed from the content of migration as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon, characterized by multidirectional and contradictory dynamics of the processes occurring in it. In conditions of geopolitical and macroeconomic instability, the diagnosis of these processes is updated in connection with sharp structural shifts in labor migration and changes in their influence on the economic security of Russian regions and the country. Based on a structural-dynamic analysis made with the use of official statistical information, the dynamics and effectiveness of the processes accompanying labor migration and their impact on the economic security of Russia, its regions, and macro-regions were identified. The main trends in labor migration at the macro level are the predominance of internal migration flows over external ones against the negative increase in labor migrants from countries outside the CIS countries and the reorientation of labor flows to other countries; changes in the sectoral structure of migration; and the high share and growth of illegal migration. At the meso level, there is a high level of differentiation in labor migration flows and, as a result, their ambiguous impact on the economic security of Russian macro-regions and their constituent entities. The main factors hindering the positive impact of labor migration on the economic security of the regions of the Southern Federal District are differences in their sectoral specialization; the state of social infrastructure, education, and healthcare; level of employment; environmental and climatic living conditions; composition and structure of the population; and quality of life. The solution to the problems of labor migration in the Southern Federal District, which can ensure an increase in the migration attractiveness of the territories of the macro-region, lies, first of all, in the growth and balance of the quality of life of the population in the regions of the Southern Federal District, increasing the effectiveness of the state regional industrial and social policy, and strengthening the place and role of migration policy in long-term programs of regional development.