Half of Armenians dream to leave country, survey reveals
By Rashid Shirinov
The recent survey conducted by Armenian office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly revealed that over the past three years the number of people wishing to emigrate from Armenia significantly increased, Armenian newspaper Aravot reports.
Half of the surveyed Armenians voiced that they dream to leave the country, which is badly hit by economic and political problems.
Some 42 percent of Armenians positively answered the question “Would you leave Armenia with a purpose to establish permanent residence abroad if you get such opportunity?” The figures of last years’ surveys were slightly less: 36 percent in 2014 and 39 percent in 2015. The rising figures indicate that at such rates the number of Armenians wishing to leave the country for permanent residence will soon exceed 50 percent.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan recently announced that it is normal when people leave for work, it is a natural migration process, and then people return to Armenia. However, most of emigrants do not even think about returning to their poor homeland. Why should’ve they leave the country for work if they had their own decent economy?
The answer is that the Armenian economy is almost dead. That’s why thousands of Armenians, mostly men, leave their country to find some money abroad – they cannot find any work in Armenia.
The volume of unemployment in the first quarter of 2016 made 19.3 percent of able-to-work population in the country, and due to the wrong structure of national economy, new vacancies do not seem to come up soon. That means the Armenian population will continue to suffer in their country. In this case, the choice of almost half of Armenians to leave the country for good seems to be the most logical decision.
The corruption can be regarded as one of the reasons of unemployment in the country – every week a number of Armenian media reveal dirty business of Armenian officials. Recently, Armenian president ostentatiously announced ‘a large anti-corruption fight’ in the country; however, his own brother, who is known as 'Sasha 50/50' among the Armenian population, squeezes a half of profits of all businessmen - no matter whether it is a large or small business.
This year, some 15 communities of Armenia did not open the first grades in schools. Last year, the situation was the same. “This is a picture of a dying state,” Aravot stated.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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