Migration Patterns in the Contemporary Russian Federation (1991–2013) Dr. Naresh Sudhaveni PhD Research Scholar, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Online published on 20 June, 2019. Abstract The world's largest country, Russian Federation has been undergoing a unique demographic transition since the 1990s when the Soviet Union was disintegrated. In order to overcome this depopulation problem, Russia needs an annual inflow of about one million migrants. Apart from economic reasons, migration is important for Russia for political and geostrategic reasons. There are millions of Russian diaspora living in Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries and has the large potential for ethnic Russians. The prevailing political instability, ethnic conflicts, economic inequities, etc. in FSU countries have led to rising in ethnic migration to Russia. At the same time, the government authorities started considering migrants as a significant resource for its demographic stability, economic growth, and development. Russia signed with the 10 FSU countries agreements on visa free entrance which facilitates the procedures for registering and acquiring work permits. Due to these agreements, the labor migrants came legally to Russia, and they stay for a long time beyond the period and work illegally in the shadow economy. The Russians see illegal migration as a national security challenge, going to the extent of using police force to prevent illegal migration. In this context, this paper examines the patterns and trends of the migration in a detailed manner. It is very important to analyze the trends and patterns of the out-migration, in-migration and net migration. It is also examine the migrants’ sex and age variation. Top Keywords Immigration, Ethnic Russians, Former Soviet Union, Illegal Migrants, Labour Market. Top |