Migration Between Successor States of the Soviet Union: Long-Term Factors

Abstract

Due to their citizens’ command of the Russian language and other powerful Soviet legacies, the successor states of the Soviet Union show signs of residual togetherness nearly three decades after its breakup. Therefore, most interstate migration flows still terminate within the post-Soviet area. Viewing Russia as the core of the empire and subsequently of the Soviet Union at large, migrations used to be centrifugal, that is, they emanated from Russia. In the mid-1970s, that pattern of migration began to experience a reversal, so that post-Soviet interstate migration—primarily to Russia, not from it—is a continuation of the centripetal pattern established then. Seven long-standing factors of migration to Russia are outlined. These are contrasts in quality of life; contraction of Russia’s working age population; regional conflicts; job creation relative to population growth, attitude to migrants and prospects for their naturalization; size of existing diasporas; and prospects for overall stability of the state and its popular perception. Positive net migration to Russia from other post-Soviet states is likely to persist in the foreseeable future. The only other post-Soviet country capitalizing on positive net migration has been Belarus.