The RA Migration state service has published sensational information about emigration from the country.
It turns out that the balance of the flow of people in and out of the country during the first nine months of this year was negative (-89.900). It means that during January-September 89,900 people have left from the country.
In the mentioned period 1.433.999 people visited Armenia and 1.523.867 people left from Armenia. This information will become a topic of discussions. We are sure that the government will try to justify this information by saying that the reason is the season, which means that they will try to convince that during the past three months of the year people will return from other countries and there will be an increased inflow of people to Armenia. People know about this too because guest-workers will return to their homes to celebrate the New Year with their families.
Even in consideration of the mentioned factor hardly it is possible that the balance of 89,000 may change much. We will compare this information with the similar information from the past years. In the same period in 2010 the negative balance of people who left from Armenia and came to Armenia was 64.900, which is less by 25.000 than this year. In the same period in 2009 this difference was less – 46.800. This means that during the crisis the number of people emigrating from Armenia was twice less than now.
It is difficult to say how close the results of the recent population census will be close to the reality. However, we believe that the number of the population is not 3.2 million as it is reported by the statistics service.
It is a big question why people leave from Armenia. To be more precise, it should be a big question for the authorities who believe that they are doing everything good for people and pushing the country closer to European values. It turns out that these reforms are either useless or the government is interested in emigration. The logic says that if the country’s economy is being fed by import and money transfers from other countries, this country always has to be kept by foreign money transfers. This means that the country is interested in supplying labor to other countries, who will send money to their homeland, especially in a situation when the money inflow from other countries has been reduced.
This is the side of the coin for the government. In terms of the other side of the coin it is interesting to know why people emigrate and what is the reason. Several months ago a public opinion survey was done among the youth, and in answer to the questions “whether they would like to leave for other countries and stay there” half of the respondents answered that they would like to. The young people said that the reasons were the social and economic situation, as well as other important factors such as the system of values, protection of rights and opportunities for self-expression and development.
By the way, before the elections the political powers are showing huge love to the youth. Some of them give money to them and others organize concerts. The prime-minister’s noisy speech was delivered at such a concert, which was organized by the RPA. However, despite the concert, his drunk appearance and technical issues, the prime-minister’s speech gave the best answer to the questions about the reason of emigration.
“We want you to be happy, we want this festive mood to be spread in the entire country. We want the Armenian young people be sure that the RPA will do their best with the mood you have to overcome all challenges. This festive mood will stimulate us and we will be able to build a better Armenia with your help, which will give talented young people to the world.”
In fact they are following the notion of giving talented young people to the world, which they are doing now intensively. Young people do not stay in the country after developing themselves in the country but they give themselves to the world. As for the notion of happiness, the youth do not let the PM down in this issue either. For most of them happiness is not the happy mood at the concert of Tata but the trust to their future and lives, which they cannot find in Armenia yet.