Armenia avoids releasing real migration figures

By Sabina Idayatova
The Armenian immigration body has not yet issued statistics on migration for the first quarter of 2013, though this data is reportedly regularly published in the middle of the month.
A few days ago, information was received that the statistics on the number of those who left the country is not available and this picture is embarassing, local media reported.
This statistics provides a miserable scene as to what extent the number of citizens leaving Armenia has increased. By delaying the release of the figures, they are trying to "smoothen" the indicators or drag out time until the elections to Yerevan's Council of Elders, the supreme body of local self-government in Yerevan, which will be held on May 5, the reports say.
According to the data covering two months of this year, the negative balance of arrivals and departures has increased 1.5 times compared to 2012. At least 70,000 people migrate from Armenia every year, and a total of about 330,000 have left their home country in the past five years.
Armenia has a tiny population of less than 3.5 million. In the last three years 5 percent or about 160,000 Armenian citizens left the country, according to Armenian Report portal.
According to the Armenian Migration Service, 2.053 million people left the country over 11 months of 2012, while 1.981 million people returned in this period. Thus, the difference between those who left and came back home made up about 72,000 people.
In January-February, the number of emigrants increased by 2,455 compared to the same period of last year. The negative balance in migration was 19,029 people, while the figure was 16,574 in January-February 2012.
The exodus trend emerged in 2008, and about 200,000 people have left the country since then in search of a new start in their lives.
Given Armenia's small population, if the dangerous demographic situation in the South Caucasus republic persists, it may soon have almost no labor force left.
Around two-thirds of the migrants have reportedly gone to Russia, while the rest have moved to the U.S. or Europe.
About 60 percent of the entire total of 8 million Armenians live
outside Armenia in 60 countries, with one million in the U.S. and
Russia each. There are also large Armenian communities in Georgia,
France, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, and Canada.
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