Economic crisis prevented emigration?
Based on data from migration services of European countries, compared to two years ago, the number of RA citizens that have left for European countries for political refuge has increased by 43% in 2009, as head of the group that created "2009 National Report on Human Development" Vardan Gevorgyan told "A1+" after the release of the UN Development Program's report entitled "Migration and Human Development: opportunities and challenges".
Taking the data as a basis, "A1+" asked RA Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan: "Don't you think the events of 2008 March 1 brought a new sweep to emigration from Armenia and that people are leaving Armenia due to lack of justice in the country?" in response, the deputy prime minister gave a negative response and tried to substantiate.
"Our experts have clearly presented the main motives and reasons behind emigration and they are mainly linked to search for employment and the dynamic attributes of our nation which is due to the fact of having a large Diaspora," said Gevorgyan. "I don't have figures that will prove that emigration has grown since March 1. On the contrary, there is a trend of people coming back in the past couple of years. If we were to analyze last year, we would have noticed that many people stayed in Armenia due to the economic crisis."
Did the global economic crisis prevent emigration from Armenia? We weren't able to get the answer to this question because the deputy prime minister simply said: "I have already responded to that question."
But the report on "Migration and Human Development: opportunities and challenges" initiated by the UN Development Program is truly troubling.
According to the report, the first intensive wave of emigration from Armenia began in 1991 and there are a total of 1 million 300 thousand emigrants of which 60% are workers with a university degree. In the past couple of years, nearly 20,000 people have been emigrating from Armenia every year. If the migrant families join them abroad, there will be 200-300,000 people leaving Armenia. According to the report, 80% of emigrants leave for Russia where they work hard and get low salaries.
