Permanent Migration in the Post-Soviet Countries

Ch. 3. P. 23–53.

Denisenko M. B., Mkrtchyan N. V., Chudinovskikh O.

The chapter provides a detailed analysis of trends and major factors of permanent migration between the former Soviet republics that have involved millions people. The authors analyze how the Eurasian migration system has been transformed over the last quarter of a century. Whereas the 1990s were characterized by mass migration (repatriation) of the Russian-speaking population from the Baltic States, Transcaucasia and Central Asia to Russia, as well as Belarus and Ukraine, the following years saw significant increases in the movement of the indigenous peoples of Central Asia to Russia and Kazakhstan. At the same time, the migration ties of Turkmenistan and Georgia with the former Union republics have significantly weakened, and the flows of migrants from Ukraine and Moldova have begun to reorient themselves toward the European Union. The chapter shows that large-scale migration in the 1990s-2000s on the territory of the former USSR has led to the redistribution of human capital in favor of Russia.

Keywords: человеческий капитал, страны СНГ, постоянная миграция, вынужденная миграция, permanent migration, миграционные потоки, migration flows, forced migration, CIS countries, human capital

In book

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

Springer, 2020.