Russian periphery is dying in movement: a cohort assessment of internal youth migration in Central Russia

Abstract

This paper investigates youth migration in Russia at the sub-regional level of administrative division. The aim of the research is to assess the volume of internal youth migration in cohort perspective. The task is only doable with the use of census data, which not only makes it possible to conduct research at the sub-regional level, but also provides much more accurate information on youth migration than the current migration record. I utilize cohortcomponent analysis to study sub-regional population dynamics. As mortality is quite insignificant at young ages, most of the change in cohort size is caused by migration. My estimates show that during the last intercensal period, 2003-2010, up to 70% of youth cohorts have left the regional periphery after graduating from school, and there was no substantial return to the demographically depleted periphery in the young working ages.

Decreasing labor intensity in agriculture and the accessibility of major cities shape the rural population decline in postsocialist Russia

“…Path dependency can occur because of a feedback loop between migration and natural growth. Most young and active people trade the countryside for cities (Kashnitsky 2020;Taylor and Martin 2001). The older rural population remains behind, which in turn, leads to decreasing birth rates and growing mortality and hence to an additional population decline.…”

Migration in rural areas of Russia: territorial differences

“…делались попытки оценить отток молодежи с территорий внутренней периферии. По данным отдельных исследований, основанных на результатах переписей, он мог достигать значений советского периода и продолжал усугублять проблему старения сельского населения [Мкртчян, 2013;Эндрюшко, 2018;Kashnitsky, 2018]. Эти работы непосредственно сельской местности посвящены не были, хотя экстремальные значения оттока получены именно по сельской глубинке.…”

Nighttime‐lights satellite imagery reveals hotspots of second home mobility in rural Russia (a case study of Yaroslavl Oblast)

“…Second home mobility in Russia also creates opportunities to revitalize the distant, depopulated countryside by redistributing human capital and combating the negative effects of rural population aging and depopulation. This is especially important for the regions in Central Russia to the north and east of Moscow, which form part of the historic core of Russia but have lost more than a half of their rural population over the last 60 years and continue to shrink (Alekseev et al, 2019; Kashnitsky, 2020; Nefedova & Treivish, 2020).…”