# **Table 1.2 Ethnic composition of net migration from Eurasia (excluding Russia) and the Baltics to Russia, 1990–94**

(thousands of people)

|**Ethnic group**|**1990**|**1991 **|**1992 **|**1993**|**1994 **|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Armenians|16.1|10.5|23.6|42.7|60.7|
|Azerbaijanis|–3.9|–3.8|–2.9|4.7|13.1|
|Belarussians|19.4|–0.9|–10.6|–5.9|10.1|
|Estonians|–0.0|–0.1|0.2|0.3|0.3|
|Georgians|–2.8|–3.1|0.4|6.1|12.5|
|Kazakhstanis|–2.9|–6.6|–10.8|–6.8|1.1|
|Kyrgyz|–1.5|–2.1|–2.1|–1.0|0.1|
|Latvians|–0.4|–0.3|—|0.3|0.3|
|Lithuanians|–0.8|–0.8|–0.1|0.2|0.4|
|Moldovans|–2.1|–2.0|–3.0|—|3.2|
|Russians|199.9|117.7|360.1|419.4|612.4|
|Tajiks|–0.4|–0.6|0.5|2.9|3.9|
|Turkmen|–0.5|–1.6|–2.1|–1.2|—|
|Ukrainians|22.0|–25.9|–64.3|11.0|79.2|
|Uzbeks|–3.2|–4.5|–2.9|0.3|3.7|
|Others|49.3|29.0|69.7|80.8|113.4|
|**Total **|**288.3**|**104.9**|**355.7 **|**553.8**|**914.6**|

_Source_ : Zaionchkovskaya 1996. _Note_ : Net migration is the difference between the number of migrants leaving and entering the region. — is not available.

Labor migration to thriving cities is now the most dynamic and large-scale migration flow in Eurasia. The interstate labor migration in the region is estimated at about 6.5–7.0 million, with about 1.5–2.0 million leaving Russia for jobs outside Eurasia, about 3 million entering Russia from the other Eurasian countries, and about 2 million (not including Russians) migrating to other Eurasian countries or outside Eurasia (Teignier-Baqué 2010). Nearly 1 of 3 families in Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Moldova and 1 of 10 in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine depend on migration-related earnings and remittances by relatives (Teignier-Baqué 2010). In 2007 these remittances amounted to 46 percent of GDP in Tajikistan, 34 percent in Moldova, 19 percent in the Kyrgyz Republic, 9 percent in Armenia, and 4 percent in Azerbaijan (Canagarajah and Kholmatov 2010).

Migration dynamics in Eurasian countries reinforced their connection with Russia’s booming regions and with a few other Eurasian leading urban centers, mainly the capital cities. In the world’s most dynamic economies people move to maximize the returns to their education and skills (World Bank 2009a). But with their legacy of centrally planned factory-cities and their inefficient facilities, Eurasian countries entered the post-Soviet era with an economic geography that sapped growth (Kontorovich 2000). The location of human and capital resources across regions and throughout the urban hierarchy differed from the patterns in advanced market economies. The movement out of lagging regions has been small relative to the total Eurasian population. The estimated surplus population of Siberia and the Far East remains high, at 17.6 million.<sup>2</sup> Eurasia has considerable scope for further internal migration to rebalance the location of economic activity and thus increase economic growth and improve social welfare. The leading urban centers of the region are the ideal candidates to attract these new workers.

# **_New realities of trade specialization_**

Trade among the former Soviet republics declined sharply after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, largely reflecting the disruption in production that the transition to a market mechanism caused, which required changes in supply patterns and a shift in output to goods demanded by the market (Havrylyshyn 10