Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Azerbaijan, main destination of migrants

6 January 2015 09:58 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan, main destination of migrants

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan is turning into one of the most attractive countries in the heart of the unstable economic region.

Deteriorating economic situation in Russia with its negative impact on a number of CIS countries and Eastern Europe have forced many to leave their homes for a better live abroad.

The stability of the Azerbaijani economy has been confirmed by international rating agencies such as Moody's, Fitch Ratings and Standart & Poor's.

Azerbaijan's economic model has proven that it has been able to withstand crises during the global crisis in 2008.

The stable economy of Azerbaijan is appealing for migrants. Last year, some 20,000 migrants referred to the State Migration Service to get work permit in the country, while the quota in 2014 was 12,000 people. This shows the high interest in the country. Meanwhile, the state is meeting the needs of professionals.

Today, migration policy of the government is aimed at eliminating the presence of unskilled foreign workers in the local labor market and using of local labor in accordance with the requirements of the economy.

Azerbaijan continues to evolve rapidly creating new enterprises and businesses and implementing major regional projects, with paying special attention to the development of high-tech industry, such as satellite and information technologies.

For this reason, Azerbaijan is eager to attract high-skilled workers and develop special mechanisms. One of them is the possibility to work in certain fields for 90 days without a permit.

Migrants also show an interest in the fields of oil industry, construction, tourism, hotel business, and education, which are developing rapidly in Azerbaijan attracting larger amounts of foreign investments

Such practice will also enhance the skills of local workers, as they learn from the experiences of foreign experts. In the future, this will lead to the national experts’ independence in scientific field.

This experience has been already marked in the leading oil companies, where the ratio of foreign and local workers changes in favor of the latter.

Now, Azerbaijani citizens working abroad prefer to come back to work in Azerbaijan.

Vagab Mammadov, Head of Employment Policy and Demography Department at Labor and Social Protection Ministry, said recently that there has been the influx of migrant workers in Azerbaijan.

"Migrants usually seek for a better future. Today, everyone views Azerbaijan as a country with economic, political and social stability. Why do we increase the inflow of foreign labor? This all because Azerbaijan has become attractive not only for foreign citizens, but also for its own nationals who have left the country," he stressed.

Meanwhile, Mammadov said, that changes in immigration law, applied by the Russian government, where most of the Azerbaijani migrants head to, will not have a negative impact on the life of Azerbaijani citizens working there.

The cost of a patent for migrants in Moscow increased to 4,000 rubles per month from January 1. Earlier, it costed only 1,200 rubles.

Mammadov said that Azerbaijani citizens have long adapted to the labor market in Russia. Thus, the outflow of the Azerbaijani citizens working in Russia is not still marked.

According to the Russian Migration Service, around 600,000 citizens of Azerbaijan are working in the labor market of Russia. This figure has not changed for 2-3 years, indicating the stabilization of the Azerbaijani labor migrants in Russia. Most of them have legalized their work and settled in the local labor market.

As an open country to legal migrants, Azerbaijan has also its own rules. For example, since April 1, 2013 foreign citizens or stateless people who arrive in Azerbaijan for more than 3 days, should register their residency. However, this procedure is simple and may be conducted even online.

Azerbaijan, with its rich nature and dozens of opportunities, is expected to become even stronger in the future.

Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more