The program for resettling compatriots in Russia showed the most modest results in 10 years in 2023
[ad_1]
The program for the voluntary resettlement of compatriots to Russia in 2023 showed the most modest results in the last ten years. According to statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 63.6 thousand people applied for participation, but only 45.1 thousand reached Russia. In 2021, 113.1 thousand applications were submitted, and 78.5 thousand people were registered. The first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for Relations with Compatriots, Konstantin Zatulin, sees two reasons for this – the implementation of the SVO and the shortcomings of the program itself, which “does not create enough incentives and at the same time creates many obstacles on the way of compatriots to Russia.”
A program to facilitate the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad to Russia was introduced by presidential decree in June 2006. Its declared goal is to help people who found themselves outside the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR return to the country. From October 2023, you will need to speak Russian to do this.
According to the quarterly monitoring of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on migration issues, in 2023, 63.6 thousand compatriots applied to the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Of these, 55.4 thousand people received certificates of participation in the program, and only 45.1 thousand people came to Russia and registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These are the lowest program implementation rates over the past ten years. Even in 2022, they were noticeably higher: then 112.7 thousand people declared their desire to resettle, 100.3 thousand received certificates, and 64.8 thousand reached Russia.
The previous significant decrease in interest in the program was recorded in the coronavirus year of 2020. Then applications were received from 90.8 thousand people, 76.9 thousand certificates were issued, and 61.9 thousand people were registered. In 2021, the indicators improved: 113.1 thousand applications were submitted, 93.7 thousand certificates were issued, 78.5 thousand people were registered. However, it was not possible to return to the pre-pandemic level of 2019 (153.2 thousand applications were submitted, 127.2 thousand certificates were issued, 108.6 thousand people were registered).
In 2023, the first place in the number of program participants who came to Russia was held by citizens of Tajikistan (14.1 thousand people – more than 30% of all “immigrants”). Second place goes to citizens of Kazakhstan (9.4 thousand), third place to citizens of Armenia (7.5 thousand). And these numbers are also noticeably lower than the 2022 data. Then 18.8 thousand “migrants” from Tajikistan were registered (25% more than in 2023), 18.9 thousand from Kazakhstan (50% more) and 8.4 thousand from Armenia ( more by 11%). The most noticeable drop was recorded among citizens of Ukraine: in 2022, 2.6 thousand people participated in the program, and in 2023 – only 240.
However, an increase was recorded in some indicators. Thus, in 2022, 410 immigrants from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and 640 in 2023. The number of “immigrants” with Russian citizenship who permanently resided abroad before 2014 has increased slightly (390 people in 2023 against 350 people in 2022), as well as stateless “displaced people” (110 against 70).
The Civic Assistance Committee (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents; deals with helping migrants and refugees) pays special attention to the ratio of the number of program participants registered and those who reached Russia. Thus, in 2021, 83.8% of people who received a certificate of participation in the program came to the country. And in 2022 and 2023 – only 64.6% and 47.3%, respectively. “This means that people are increasingly changing their decision and ultimately not moving to Russia,” state committee representatives. “This is due to the political, social and economic situation in the Russian Federation.” The committee also notes that in relation to young women and men, the decrease in the number of “movers” in 2022 and 2023 shows a particularly sharp drop, but “it can only be reliably stated about its reasons after research in this group.”
“Not everyone is ready to go to a warring state. People are also waiting to see what this can do (the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.— “Kommersant”) will end,” Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, commented on the statistics. “The second circumstance is that this program does not create enough incentives and at the same time creates many obstacles on the way of compatriots to Russia. Whether this or that person will become a participant in the program depends on many authorities, terms, and conditions.” Mr. Zatulin recalled that back in 2021 he introduced a bill on repatriation as an alternative to the program, but the government gave a negative response to it. Then in November 2023, President Putin issued a decree establishing a repatriation institution starting in 2024. However, Mr. Zatulin noted with regret that so far the decree “essentially has not begun to be implemented,” since it is unclear who will manage this process: “Everything that concerns migration is in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The ministry carries out technical things, but semantic ones often escape its attention. Related to this, by the way, are the shortcomings in the implementation of the state program and criticism of it. But we did not provide clarity for the officials who implement this program. There is also no agreement between the participants in the legislative process.”
Migration expert Vyacheslav Postavnin sees the “obvious influence of the SVO” on the demand for the program, but notes that problems with it began long before the hostilities: “The idea itself was correct, but a technocratic approach was applied to it. Initially, the authorities introduced many restrictions on participation in the program – based on age, marital status, and regions to which one can return, thereby cutting it off in the bud. As a result, in the first 12 years, only about 800 thousand people were resettled.” Mr. Postavnin also believes that the program from the very beginning should have been of a repatriation nature, so that “representatives of those peoples who traditionally live on the territory of the Russian Federation and do not have their own state education” could return to the Russian Federation. However, he is not sure that “in the current circumstances” the institution of repatriation will be able to restore the flow of “displaced people.”
[ad_2]
Source link