Migration situation in the Far East of Russia at the beginning of the 21st century

Abstract

The article discusses the migration situation in the Far East of Russia for 27 years the post-Soviet period. It is shown that during all these years there have been unforgiving interregional migration outflows of population from the Far East, poorly reimbursed by interstate migration growth and exacerbated by natural decline. Differences in the standard and conditions of living, in the development of infrastructure of the Far East regions and the old-inhabited European Russia do not add optimism on the issue of restraining migration outflows from the main geopolitical borderland and outstripping growth rate of its population. To estimate the intra-Russian migration capacity of the Far East population growth, the authors disclose and systematize the interregional migration connections of the Far East regions in 2006–2017. There are identified the Russian regions having the closest migratory connections with the Far East. In addition to those regions, in an exchange with which the Far East loses population, there are identified the areas having close migratory connections and roughly equivalent migration population exchange. They have the operational migration potential for increasing the flows of Russian population to the Far East. The article shows the structure of interregional migration losses of the Far East, from which 2/3 falls to 5 RF subjects — Moscow, Moscow oblast, Saint-Petersburg, Leningrad oblast and Krasnodar region. It provides the rationale for that without the economic and social policy reversal from West to East the task of re-colonization of the Far East cannot be solved. And interstate migration alone would not be up to the task. The conclusion contains suggestions for improving the situation.