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EMIGRATION CONCERNS: EU FUNDS NEW PROGRAM IN ARMENIA TO PROMOTE REINTEGRATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS
SOCIETY | 27.03.13 | 15:33
Photolure
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia and the Armenian
representative of the People in Need (PIN) organization signed a
memorandum of understanding earlier this week to cooperate on a program
promoting circular migration and reintegration processes in Armenia.
The main purpose of the program to be carried out with the European
Union's financial support is to promote the protection of rights and
economic stability of Armenian citizens who leave the country to find
work abroad, and reintegration of labor migrants in Armenia in order
to prevent illegal immigration. The EU-funded budget of the program
is EUR 1 million (about $1.3 million).
Czech expert and member of the Association of the European Center of
Meetings between East and West Erika Lerner thinks that the signing
of the Association Agreement between Armenia and the European Union,
which is now scheduled for early 2014, will be delayed.
According to polls conducted in Armenia in October-December 2012 by a
relevant EU institution (for internal use purposes), up to a million
people are ready to leave Armenia if a maximally simplified visa
regime is put in place between the South Caucasus country and the EU,
said Lerner. And those, she says, would not only be labor migrants,
but also non-working members of their families.
But now Armenians formally cannot seek asylum as a readmission
agreement has been signed with Armenia, which means that every
illegal immigrant from Armenia will be returned to the country of
his or her origin.
In January-February 2013 the negative balance of international
passenger traffic compared with the same period of last year in Armenia
increased by 7,700 or by 53.7 percent, totaling 22,100. In February
alone, the negative balance of international passenger traffic was
15,100 people, while in February last year it was 10,200.
Expert of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute Hrant Mikaelyan thinks
the peculiarity of migration in Armenia is its mass nature. Since the
declaration of independence in 1991 the country has been abandoned by
1.4 million people. Today's estimated number of Armenia's permanent
population is 2.9 million. Russia, with which Yerevan has a non-visa
regime, remains the main direction of emigration from Armenia.
In accordance with a Russian naturalization program, anyone recognized
as a 'compatriot' may be entitled to move to Russia. Moreover, such
a resettling compatriot would also have the right to get a lump-sum
cash assistance of 240,000 Russian rubles (about $7,800). But one can
get this money only if he or she decides to settle in one of several
regions of the vast country with sparse population. Citizens of the
former Soviet Union are also considered to be compatriots in Russia.
Since the start of the program in 2006, a total of 125,000 people
from different countries moved to Russia as resettling compatriots,
with 63,000 doing so in 2012 alone. The number of families who used
the opportunity in Armenia is about 5,000. Former Russian Ambassador to
Armenia Vyacheslav Kovalenko was outraged that the Armenian government
opposed the program. "Almost as many people have left Armenia under
the U.S. Government's annual Green Card lottery. What is this whole
noise about?" he said last year.
During last week's press conference, President Serzh Sargsyan argued
that most people leave Armenia because of the current "stifling"
atmosphere in the country, which he said is being portrayed by two
television companies, as well as print and online media.
Sargsyan was also confronted on emigration issues during the campaign
ahead of last month's presidential election in which he officially
won. An elderly man in the border region of Tavush complained to the
visiting candidate that there was no work in his village and that
his sons had to leave the country in search of jobs. "The cucumber
grows upside down, because you think like that," replied Sargsyan in
what became an occasion for opposition media to criticize the head of
state. At the same time, during the same press conference Sargsyan,
in fact, spoke against making drastic changes in the government,
considering that it has fulfilled its tasks in 2012 and is now on
track to live up to his expectations also this year.
SOCIETY | 27.03.13 | 15:33
Photolure
By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia and the Armenian
representative of the People in Need (PIN) organization signed a
memorandum of understanding earlier this week to cooperate on a program
promoting circular migration and reintegration processes in Armenia.
The main purpose of the program to be carried out with the European
Union's financial support is to promote the protection of rights and
economic stability of Armenian citizens who leave the country to find
work abroad, and reintegration of labor migrants in Armenia in order
to prevent illegal immigration. The EU-funded budget of the program
is EUR 1 million (about $1.3 million).
Czech expert and member of the Association of the European Center of
Meetings between East and West Erika Lerner thinks that the signing
of the Association Agreement between Armenia and the European Union,
which is now scheduled for early 2014, will be delayed.
According to polls conducted in Armenia in October-December 2012 by a
relevant EU institution (for internal use purposes), up to a million
people are ready to leave Armenia if a maximally simplified visa
regime is put in place between the South Caucasus country and the EU,
said Lerner. And those, she says, would not only be labor migrants,
but also non-working members of their families.
But now Armenians formally cannot seek asylum as a readmission
agreement has been signed with Armenia, which means that every
illegal immigrant from Armenia will be returned to the country of
his or her origin.
In January-February 2013 the negative balance of international
passenger traffic compared with the same period of last year in Armenia
increased by 7,700 or by 53.7 percent, totaling 22,100. In February
alone, the negative balance of international passenger traffic was
15,100 people, while in February last year it was 10,200.
Expert of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute Hrant Mikaelyan thinks
the peculiarity of migration in Armenia is its mass nature. Since the
declaration of independence in 1991 the country has been abandoned by
1.4 million people. Today's estimated number of Armenia's permanent
population is 2.9 million. Russia, with which Yerevan has a non-visa
regime, remains the main direction of emigration from Armenia.
In accordance with a Russian naturalization program, anyone recognized
as a 'compatriot' may be entitled to move to Russia. Moreover, such
a resettling compatriot would also have the right to get a lump-sum
cash assistance of 240,000 Russian rubles (about $7,800). But one can
get this money only if he or she decides to settle in one of several
regions of the vast country with sparse population. Citizens of the
former Soviet Union are also considered to be compatriots in Russia.
Since the start of the program in 2006, a total of 125,000 people
from different countries moved to Russia as resettling compatriots,
with 63,000 doing so in 2012 alone. The number of families who used
the opportunity in Armenia is about 5,000. Former Russian Ambassador to
Armenia Vyacheslav Kovalenko was outraged that the Armenian government
opposed the program. "Almost as many people have left Armenia under
the U.S. Government's annual Green Card lottery. What is this whole
noise about?" he said last year.
During last week's press conference, President Serzh Sargsyan argued
that most people leave Armenia because of the current "stifling"
atmosphere in the country, which he said is being portrayed by two
television companies, as well as print and online media.
Sargsyan was also confronted on emigration issues during the campaign
ahead of last month's presidential election in which he officially
won. An elderly man in the border region of Tavush complained to the
visiting candidate that there was no work in his village and that
his sons had to leave the country in search of jobs. "The cucumber
grows upside down, because you think like that," replied Sargsyan in
what became an occasion for opposition media to criticize the head of
state. At the same time, during the same press conference Sargsyan,
in fact, spoke against making drastic changes in the government,
considering that it has fulfilled its tasks in 2012 and is now on
track to live up to his expectations also this year.