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Contents

Migration in the post-Soviet space: an introduction (András Deák - Irina Molodikova - Tamás Szigetvári)
Compatriots' policy in modern Russia: peculiarities in development of "Russian world" (Irina Molodikova)
Migration processes and Russia's migration policy: from the newly independent states to the Eurasian Economic Union (1991 - 2015) (Galina Osadchaya - Tatiana Yudina)
Migration trends in Ukraine in the context of civilizational choice (Olena Malynovska)
Migration from Central Asian countries: the challenges for the receiving societies (Vladimir Mukomel)
Migration and dependency structures in the post-Soviet region (Julianna Faludi)
The authors

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Introduction

Twenty five years passed from December 8, 1991, when the Belovezhskii agreement on dissolution of USSR was signed by the representatives of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia. The collapse of the socialist system was definitely a key event of the 20th century for Central and Eastern Europe. It was accompanied by the enthusiasm and high aspirations of unity after the fall of the iron curtain for the people across Europe. The expectations and hopes of a bright future mitigated the shock that occurred from economic transition and massive waves of displaced people. The 27 new sovereign states and at least five unrecognized territories that emerged after the collapse of the socialist system have specific relationships, both among themselves and with the EU. Some of the former socialist countries arranged the civilized divorce (like former republics of Czechoslovakia), the others, in opposite, fell into protracted bloody conflicts (as former republic Yugoslavia). Russia declared itself as the legal successor of the USSR and for the last 25 years tries to manage close relations with countries of the so called "near abroad", by formation of different economic, political and security unions (like the CIS, the Russia-Belorussia union, the Eurasian union) for the accommodation by the fSU countries to the new realities of open market economy.

In the myriad of events and processes in the former Soviet Union since 1991, the significance of the human component, the migration and demography have been partly overlooked. This is especially true for economic analyses. Despite the fact, that the flow of labor and movement of people constitute one of the main variables of productivity and welfare, its role have been traditionally overshadowed in economic studies by other dimensions, like trade and capital movements. Thus in our research project "Russia as political and economic centre in the Eurasian space at the beginning of the century" (NKFI-K105914) the study of migration processes in the post-Soviet space was chosen as one of the major novelties. We consciously strived for a better understanding of migration and its impact on the local labour markets, its implications on economic growth and development.

No doubt, migration and demography are vital components of the post-Soviet transformation. In spite of the disintegration processes, Russia is still a political, economic and cultural magnet for the fSU countries. The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 left about 25 million Russians and 4 million representatives of other titular nations of Russia outside Russia as foreigners in the newly formed countries. Unsurprisingly, between 1991 and 2013 around 9.6 million persons resettled back to Russia from fSU countries. Russian citizenship was obtained by 8 million persons, 98 per cent of whom are from fSU. Almost 1.5 million people got the refugee status in 1990s because of forced repatriation of Russian-speaking population. Currently, there are about 11.6 million labor migrants in Russia from fSU.

The difference in the demographic processes between the fSU countries and Russia helps them in the formation of a compensatory labor market. The contrast between the aging and rapidly declining populations of some Slavic countries, like Ukraine, Belorussia and Russia and the population boom in some Southern Republics, like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan was a well-known social phenomenon of the 1970s. These trends have not stopped after 1991: the population of Uzbekistan has increased 1.5 times, by another 10 million people. This country now is a major supplier of labour migrants to Russia, while the proportion of pensioners in Russia grew from 222 to 283 per 1000 people by 2012.

At the same time, the momentum of change, the newly developed political, economic and social patterns of post-Soviet transition have left a much bigger imprint on human relations. The abolishment of travel restrictions, the liberalization of movement sparked a major outflow of people to the developed countries. Unsurprisingly, newly emerging opportunities for free movement formed the new ethnic diasporas of migrants from former socialist countries in the Western countries. Among 215.8 million international migrants in the world in 2010 about 44.6 million people were from 29 countries of the former socialist block). From 1991 to 2012 about 22 million people from former socialist countries resettled to the West.

New borders, conflicts, changing socio-economic and cultural patterns represent another major drive for migration. Despite the large, often ethnically-determined migration of the 1990s, we cannot close this chapter unanimously. The conflict in Eastern Ukraine from 2014 to nowadays created about 1.2 million asylum seekers to Russia, and about 22 thousands in the EU. Almost 1.7 million persons are internally displaced in the Ukraine. The potential hotspots in Central Asia and the Caucasus created new borders, and displaced people clearly demonstrate the ongoing and repeatedly incoming nature of these trends.

In this project and by this publication we would like to give a relatively short overview of some major migration issues in the region. Understandably, we had to be very selective due to limitations of the projects. Nonetheless, we hope these papers outline the magnitude of issue and may improve the understanding the economic complexities of the post-Soviet region.

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