Emigration from the CIS Countries: Old Intentions—New Regularities

Ch. 5. P. 81–123.

Denisenko M. B.

This chapter summarizes the issues of emigration from the countries that formed the Commonwealth of Independent States immediately after the breakup of the USSR some 25 years ago, to non-CIS countries. It is based on various statistical sources from host countries and migration databases of international organizations (Eurostat, OECD, UN Population Division, UNESCO, UNHCR). The scale of emigration from the former Soviet republics was massive. There were two emigration periods, each having its own geography, intensity, and reasons. The emigration outflow was strongest in the 1990s. Its size and geography were largely determined by the repatriation movement of Germans, Jews, Greeks, and economic and political consequences of the breakup of the USSR. In the 2000s, the geography of emigration from the CIS expanded and become in line with global mobility trends. As a result, new migrant communities emerged in many countries. Permanent residents from post-Soviet countries are especially numerous in Germany, Israel, the USA and Italy.

Keywords: мигранты, репатриация, эмиграция, migrants, гражданство, беженцы, emigration, citizenship, постсоветские государства, Post-soviet states, repatriation, refugees, foreign-born population, уроженцы зарубежных стран

In book

Migration from the Newly Independent States: 25 years after the collapse of the USSR

Springer, 2020.