Some 60,000 Armenians go aborad a year in search of jobs: prime minister says

YEREVAN, July 25. / ARKA /. Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarkisian downplayed last Friday speculations about mass exodus of his country fellows saying as many as 60,000 labour migrants have left the country so far when he met with a group of intellectuals in the town of Oshakan in central Aragatsotn province.

Some of them had signed earlier this month an open letter to the government urging it to take swift action to prevent  Armenians from leaving their country.

The prime minister said the authorities share the concerns over ongoing out-migration, albeit it is not as large as claimed by some people and media, ‘because since 1991 the country has been having a serious demographic situation.’

"Today we have 3 million permanent residents in Armenia, and twice as many Armenians living outside the country. This reflects the mobility of our nation, that is, our citizens can move freely, since there are favourable conditions for it", Sarkisian said.

He said another factor contributing to emigration is the lack of jobs. He then recalled that the peak of out-emigration was in 1991-1995 when some 200,000 Armenians left their country a year.

"It was due to socio-economic situation of the country at a time when the number of jobs reduced dramatically making our citizens to leave their homeland to solve their social problems," he said.

According to him, after 1996-97, when the country ensured macroeconomic stability along with economic growth the negative migration balance reached 50-60 thousand per year reaching zero level in  2004-2006, but in 2007 a negative balance was registered. Annually about  4-5 thousand  Armenians leave the country to never return.

He said in 2010 after Russian economy began to improve the flow of Armenian labour migrants to that country begin to grow. According to him, when dealing with statistical data, one needs to be careful and take into account the departure of citizens for seasonal work.  He then reminded of a  government migration strategy approved in December 2010 that clearly states the objectives and priorities of the government.

"We should be able to stop the negative migration balance and achieve positive results. This is the main objective of the ministry of Diaspora, which has developed a program to strengthen ties with the Diaspora, to create new jobs for Diaspora Armenians wishing to move to  Armenia," the prime minister said.

According to him, the government has also developed and presented to parliament a law on repatriation, under which the government would undertake to create an environment for our fellow citizens, returning to Armenia, enabling them to quickly and easily adapt to new conditions.

Speaking of the border areas the premier highlighted the implementation of proportional development of regions and stressed that in allocation of financial flows the  priority should be given to communities, not the capital city or large towns.
 
Speaking on birth rate promotion he said  over the past five years  the government has done a lot in this direction, seeing some serious  success.  -0-