Demographic changes in Russia's Far east: An emerging challenge
Russia's far east is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and is administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District, which lies between Lake Baikal and the Pacific Ocean and shares land borders with Mongolia, China. and North Korea in the south and the maritime borders with Japan in the southeast and the United States along the Bering Strait in the northeast. Although the region is often viewed as part of Siberia abroad, Russian Far East was historically categorized separately from Siberia in Russian regional plans (and earlier during the Soviet era when it was called the Soviet Far East).
The Far East Federal District is the largest of the eight Federal Districts of Russia, but with a population of 8,371,257 inhabitants, “which is more than 5% of the Russian population, according to Rosstat. Miscellaneous nationalities comprise the urban population, Ukrainians, Tatars, Koreans, Jews and a large group of indigenous peoples who live in the region: Yakuts, Koryaks, Nanai, Ulchi, Udege, Itelmen, Evenk, Ainu, Aleuts, Chukchi, Eskimos, etc, The Far Eastern Federal District covers more than a third of the country’s territory. The area of the region is 6.952.555 km, which is about 41% of the area of the entire country.”[1]
Table 1: The population of Far Eastern Federal District, within the borders of 2000, with the division into administrative entities in the years 1990-2010 (on January 1), in thousands of people. According to estimates
Source: Demographic changes in the Russian Siberia and the Far East in 1989-2019 Tadeusz Dmochowski University of Gda?sk, Gda?sk, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7609-6350 DOI 10.2478/pn-2019-0017
The Far Eastern Federal District includes 11 regions, In 2000 Russia's federal subjects were sorted into larger federal districts, one amongst which, the far eastern Federal District, comprised the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Amur OblastKamchatka Oblast with the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Primorsky Krai, the and Sakhalin Oblast. “In November 2018 Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia were added they had previously formed part of the Siberian Federal District.”[2] Since 2000, Russians have increasingly used the term "Far East" to refer to the Federal District, although the term is also often used more generically.
Table 2: The population of the entities of the Russian Federation in the years 2011-2019 (on January 1) within the boundaries of federal districts of 2019,according to estimates
Source: Demographic changes in the Russian Siberia and the Far East in 1989-2019 Tadeusz Dmochowski University of Gdask, Gdask, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7609-6350 DOI 10.2478/pn-2019-0017
Population of Far East Federal District (FE) from 1989 to 2020 in the chart in millions:
Figure 1-CEIC data
Image source: https://www.ceicdata.com/en/russia/population-by-region/population-far-east-federal-district-fe
Given the vast territory of the Russian Far East, 6.3 million people are the equivalent of just under one person per square kilometre, making the Russian Far East one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. declining since the dissolution of the Soviet Union (even more than for Russia in general) and declined by 14% in the last 15 years.
From the image, we can observe that there Is a surge in the population in the year 2018, but it was only because of the inclusion of the Zabaykalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia regions, they were previously a part of the Siberian federal district.
During the Soviet era, the Russian Far East was the target of industrial development, town planning, and the exploitation of its heavily subsidized and state-orchestrated natural resources. The result was a considerable influx of people and an enormous increase in settlement in the entire region. . With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the centrally planned Soviet economy, the RFE and its people had to adapt to a new reality. Thousands decided against it; Instead, they left the region, leading to the depopulation of cities and landscapes, some see this as a new demographic crisis in the region and predict that the sharp population decline will continue in the coming decades.[3] “In his 2006 State of the Nation speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most urgent problem facing Russia.”[4]
The Far East is facing a demographic crisis due to low birth rates, high death rates and internal migration to the West. According to the Far East Development Ministry, the demographic situation in the region remains difficult: population emigration continues People abandoned due to poor quality of life and social environment, poorly developed infrastructure.[5]
Russia’s plans on repopulating the region:
Land giveaway: “In an effort to boost the population and economy of the most undeveloped regions, Putin has ordered free land handouts in Russia’s Far East and Siberia”.[6] under the deal, all citizens will apply for a hectare of land (2.5 acres) – about the scale of a football pitch – in an exceedingly immense stretch of territory spanning the higher Arctic reaches close to Alaska, all the way down to islands off the coast of Japan and south to the Chinese border. The areas lined by the scheme embody Russia’s far eastern Federal District, that includes 9 federal regions with a complete area of over 6,169 million sq. kilometres (3.9 million square miles). particularly the Kamchatka, Primorye, Khabarovsk, Amur, Magadan and Sakhalin regions, the Republic of Sakha Yakutiya and the Jewish and Chukotka autonomous districts.[7] the arrangement permits solely Russian citizens to possess the land. Foreigners will be a part of the program, however cannot own the land till five years once they have immigrated to Russia. Consolidated teams (of twenty lots minimum) also will be supplied with basic infrastructure. As of December 2017, quite 107,000 individuals have applied and 40,000 people became house owners of the land.[8]
Money:
workers who move to the Far East are now(2018) paid 225 thousand rubles. The labour mobility program was launched in 2015. By offering the Russians money for the move, the authorities wanted to attract qualified specialists to the Far East region. But, as is the case with all attempts by the authorities to relocate people to the Far East, the program failed. According to the Ministry of Labor, over the three years of the program's operation, only 1.1 thousand citizens have used it.[9] In the labour department, the low indicators were explained by the "complexity of the mechanism for implementing the program." The Ministry of Labor said that by 2025, 120 thousand new jobs will be created in the Far East, of which more than 60% will be occupied by specialists from other Russian regions.
Migration:
In response to these demographic issues, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin signed the 2012 conception of
Migration Policy hopes to use immigrants to deal with population decline and to fill in rising gaps within the labour market. The Ministry of Internal Affairs advised sending migrants to the Far East and Siberia and making a special tv channel for them. The proposal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is contained in the concept of migration policy till 2020, prepared by the department. The concept of migration policy describes the creation of a mechanism to stimulate the relocation of immigrants to the far East and Siberia - to the Baikal region. the president approved the concept of state migration policy till 2025. “To make migrants feel more comfortable, it is proposed to improve the infrastructure, in particular, to create a special educational TV channel.”[10] To implement the plan for the resettlement of migrants, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes to expand the powers of local authorities "to stimulate the residence of immigrants in labour-deficient regions, regions with an unfavourable demographic situation, regions of the Far East and the Baikal region."[11]
“Russia's Far East saw 7,800 Russians moving from abroad to the region in 2016 under a state program encouraging resettlement of overseas compatriots in a region that badly needs a workforce,"[12] according to the Russian Agency for the Development of Human Capital in the Far East, The Russians who moved to the Far East are mostly from Ukraine, Tajikistan and Armenia.
Solutions: The state, trying to lure the population to remote regions, ignores the factors that force people to leave and does not provoke a desire to come. It would be more sensible if the state invested in the economic development of these regions, providing a developed infrastructure (transport, technology, social affairs, market) and communication, jobs and a social support system for migrants. Large investments are required in the economies of remote regions. Many Russians in the Far East say that the Russian government has failed to address these infrastructure problems and is instead promoting "artificial mobility". But that doesn't work because when people discover what's missing in the region, they leave as soon as possible.[13]
Russian far east region consists of some of the beautiful locations on earth, which consists of some rare and beautiful flora and fauna. while most of the tourists who visit Russia spend their time in western parts of Russia, the eastern part is getting very little attention when comes tourism, because of lack of basic infrastructure, it is very expensive to travel to the far east for recreational purposes, by investing in developing tourism and related infrastructure in the far east, Russian can expect economic activity in the region and thereby it contributes the development and attracting people for permanent settlement. The Russian government opened up the region for investments, India and Japan pledged investment in the energy sector and the Indian government approved a $1 billion line of credit for the development of the far east region of Russia. The far eastern region has much potential to develop if provided with good infrastructure and opportunity.
Notes
[1] About The Far East, The Roscongress Foundation, Eastern Economic Forum, Available at https://forumvostok.ru/en/about/
[2] "??????????? ????????-?????? ???????? ??????????". publication.pravo.gov.ru.
[3] Kontorovich, V., 2000. 'Can Russia resettle the Far East?', Post-Communist Economies 123: 365-384. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631370050173441
[4] 6 Bigg, Claire. "Russia: Putin Speech Puts Domestic Concerns Before Foreign
Policy." RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. May 10, 2006. http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1068299.html.
[5] Krasov, Vlad “Far Eastern wastelands: the great resettlement of Russians failed”, Babr24.com, 20.01.2018, Available at https://babr24.com/msk/?IDE=169793
[6] Romanova, Marina “Russia offers free land to Russians and foreigners”, Russia briefing, May 13, 2016, Available at https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-offers-free-land-russians-foreigners.html/
[7] Ibid
[8] "About 40 thousand people received the Far Eastern hectare". TASS (in Russian). Dec 29, 2017, Available at https://tass.ru/v-strane/4851777
[9] Krasov, Vlad “Far Eastern wastelands: the great resettlement of Russians failed”, Babr24.com, 20.01.2018, Available at https://babr24.com/msk/?IDE=169793
[10] Krasov, Vlad, “The Far East and Siberia will become a reservation for migrants”, Babr.24.com, 06/30/2017, Available at https://babr24.com/msk/?IDE=161668
[11] Ibid
[12] Vladivostok. (Xinhua/Sputnik), “Russia's Far East receives nearly 8,000 compatriots in 2016”, Available at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-04/05/c_136182560.htm
[13] Krasov, Vlad “Far Eastern wastelands: the great resettlement of Russians failed”, Babr24.com, 20.01.2018, Available at https://babr24.com/msk/?IDE=169793
Pic Courtesy-Evgeni Tcherkasski at unsplash.com
(the views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)
