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OUTWARD BOUND: EMIGRATION STATS DON'T MATCH REALITY SPECIALISTS SAY
Society | 04.02.14 | 15:39
Photolure
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenian political analysts and economists consider controversial the
latest out-migration figures published by the National Statistical
Service (NSS) that suggest that fewer people left the country in 2013
than in previous years.
According to the statistics, the number of people who entered Armenia
in 2013 made a total of 1,452,085, while the number of those who
departed from the country totaled 1,494,086. The negative balance
thus stands at 42,001 people, which is by 7,659 less than in 2012
(-49,660), which means that the rate of out-migration in 2013 slowed
down as compared to the previous years.
According to the NSS data, passenger traffic by air was down 0.3
percent, which shows no negative balance, but instead the negative
balance is present at the land checkpoints at the Armenian-Georgian
border that people cross by buses or minibuses as a less expensive
and suitable way of traveling for families.
According to the 2013 data a total of 39,726 citizens left the country
through the Bagratashen checkpoint as compared to 21,144 in 2012. The
figures for the Bavra checkpoint in 2013 and 2012 made 13,000 and
8,288, respectively.
"The population shrinks and the outmigration is calculated from
that reduced number. If it continues like that and there is barely a
population left in Armenia to emigrate, for example, in 10 years, I
assure you that the outmigration rate will be down to 10,000-15,000,"
former prime minister, now opposition lawmaker Hrant Bagratyan told
RFE/RL's Armenian Service.
Demographers say that while in the past unemployment and poor economic
conditions were a valid reason for outmigration, then today despair,
lack of confidence in the future in many cases come as the primary
cause of emigration, people no longer believe that their children
can have a good future in their homeland.
"Recently moral and psychological reasons have become more significant
for people. It can also be observed within individual surroundings,
in private conversations, many feel that way, they feel frustrated,
which is connected with the moral and psychological situation in the
country. No tendency for change or improvement of this situation can
be observed yet," demographer Ruben Yeganyan says.
A majority of emigrants are outraged by the inequality of opportunities
to undertake economic activity in the country, injustices and
exploitation of hired labor.
"People understand the objective difficulties of Armenia, such as
the blockade, a constant threat of war, objective difficulties of
carrying out economic activities. But they no longer understand that
these objective reasons are applicable only to some. A biological
instinct of a 'closed area' is used, in this case those participating
in the government of the country maul those who do not," ethnographer
Hranush Kharatyan told ArmeniaNow.
According to her, it is possible to curb emigration if all people are
equal to law, if no one hinders them to live, work and create. If
people get help in doing all that, according to Kharatyan, then
miracles can happen even in 'closed areas'.
"Even in a blockaded Armenia the socio-economic climate will be changed
if those in the government are guided by the principle of protecting
the rights and equality of opportunity in our country. Ten percent of
our country's population is involved in the government system. The
already scarce resources are directed at the maintenance of that 10
percent. This is an abnormal phenomenon. On the one hand there is an
inflated government apparatus that siphons out the last resources of
the people, on the other hand the government itself is an obstacle,"
says the ethnographer.
Government officials in Armenia have long downplayed the rate of
emigration from the country, insisting that many of those who do go
outside for migrant work remain very much attached to their homeland
and participate in its economic life by wiring back home vital cash
remittances.
While acknowledging the presence of social and economic problems in the
country that make a certain number of people seek better opportunities
abroad, in one interview last year President Serzh Sargsyan accused
certain media of creating an improper atmosphere that he implied
contributed to people's despair and eventual decisions to leave.
http://armenianow.com/society/51758/armenia_society_migration_balance_statistics
Society | 04.02.14 | 15:39
Photolure
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenian political analysts and economists consider controversial the
latest out-migration figures published by the National Statistical
Service (NSS) that suggest that fewer people left the country in 2013
than in previous years.
According to the statistics, the number of people who entered Armenia
in 2013 made a total of 1,452,085, while the number of those who
departed from the country totaled 1,494,086. The negative balance
thus stands at 42,001 people, which is by 7,659 less than in 2012
(-49,660), which means that the rate of out-migration in 2013 slowed
down as compared to the previous years.
According to the NSS data, passenger traffic by air was down 0.3
percent, which shows no negative balance, but instead the negative
balance is present at the land checkpoints at the Armenian-Georgian
border that people cross by buses or minibuses as a less expensive
and suitable way of traveling for families.
According to the 2013 data a total of 39,726 citizens left the country
through the Bagratashen checkpoint as compared to 21,144 in 2012. The
figures for the Bavra checkpoint in 2013 and 2012 made 13,000 and
8,288, respectively.
"The population shrinks and the outmigration is calculated from
that reduced number. If it continues like that and there is barely a
population left in Armenia to emigrate, for example, in 10 years, I
assure you that the outmigration rate will be down to 10,000-15,000,"
former prime minister, now opposition lawmaker Hrant Bagratyan told
RFE/RL's Armenian Service.
Demographers say that while in the past unemployment and poor economic
conditions were a valid reason for outmigration, then today despair,
lack of confidence in the future in many cases come as the primary
cause of emigration, people no longer believe that their children
can have a good future in their homeland.
"Recently moral and psychological reasons have become more significant
for people. It can also be observed within individual surroundings,
in private conversations, many feel that way, they feel frustrated,
which is connected with the moral and psychological situation in the
country. No tendency for change or improvement of this situation can
be observed yet," demographer Ruben Yeganyan says.
A majority of emigrants are outraged by the inequality of opportunities
to undertake economic activity in the country, injustices and
exploitation of hired labor.
"People understand the objective difficulties of Armenia, such as
the blockade, a constant threat of war, objective difficulties of
carrying out economic activities. But they no longer understand that
these objective reasons are applicable only to some. A biological
instinct of a 'closed area' is used, in this case those participating
in the government of the country maul those who do not," ethnographer
Hranush Kharatyan told ArmeniaNow.
According to her, it is possible to curb emigration if all people are
equal to law, if no one hinders them to live, work and create. If
people get help in doing all that, according to Kharatyan, then
miracles can happen even in 'closed areas'.
"Even in a blockaded Armenia the socio-economic climate will be changed
if those in the government are guided by the principle of protecting
the rights and equality of opportunity in our country. Ten percent of
our country's population is involved in the government system. The
already scarce resources are directed at the maintenance of that 10
percent. This is an abnormal phenomenon. On the one hand there is an
inflated government apparatus that siphons out the last resources of
the people, on the other hand the government itself is an obstacle,"
says the ethnographer.
Government officials in Armenia have long downplayed the rate of
emigration from the country, insisting that many of those who do go
outside for migrant work remain very much attached to their homeland
and participate in its economic life by wiring back home vital cash
remittances.
While acknowledging the presence of social and economic problems in the
country that make a certain number of people seek better opportunities
abroad, in one interview last year President Serzh Sargsyan accused
certain media of creating an improper atmosphere that he implied
contributed to people's despair and eventual decisions to leave.
http://armenianow.com/society/51758/armenia_society_migration_balance_statistics