ArmInfo.The size of emigration is determined not by words, but by numbers, said from the rostrum of the Armenian National Assembly Hayk Gevorgyan, a deputy from the ruling My Step faction, responding to the accusations of the Prosperous Armenia opposition faction about the growing number of people wishing to leave the country.
According to Gevorgyan, in 2008, when the Prosperous Armenia Party was part of the ruling coalition and was responsible for the situation in the country, 23 thousand people left Armenia, in 2009 - 25 thousand people, in 2009 - 46 thousand people. In just 10 years - until 2018 - more than 372 thousand of its inhabitants left the country. Since 2018, when Nikol Pashinyan's team came to power, according to the deputy, a reverse process has begun. In 2018, 26 thousand people arrived in the country, in 2019 - 14 thousand people. There are no data for 2020 yet, but as Gevorkyan assured, they will be positive. In response, MP from the Prosperous Armenia faction Arman Abovyan noted that the party of the same name did not lose the war with Azerbaijan, and did not surrender its land. This current government led to the occupation of 75% of the territory of Artsakh. And if the ruling majority thinks that everything is in order in Armenia, then it should visit the airport to make sure on the spot of the true volumes of emigration. "Let's go together and ask why people are leaving Armenia en masse," noted Arman Abovyan, advising his colleague not to pass mistakes onto others.
It should be noted, however, that Hayk Gevorkian's speech does not include the balance of arrivals and departures since 2018. Meanwhile, according to the data of the international audit and consulting network FinExpertiza, which studied the migration statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, in 2020 alone, 30.5 thousand citizens of Armenia received Russian citizenship. Moreover, this figure turned out to be 4.7% higher than in 2019. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, in 2018, 27,100 citizens of Armenia, having received Russian citizenship, moved to permanent residence in this country.
However, the presence of a passport does not mean the fact of moving to permanent residence in the Russian Federation, but these figures, according to the source, speaks of a general trend.
And, nevertheless, according to official statistics, in 2019, 24,186 people moved to Armenia from abroad. (with an annual growth of 22.1%), and 30,125 people emigrated abroad (with an annual growth of 17.5%). A year earlier, 19808 people moved to Armenia in 2018. (an annual growth of 12.5%), and 25641 people emigrated abroad. (7.5% annual growth). Data for 2020 has not yet been released. That is, we are talking about reducing the negative migration balance.
The main countries where the citizens of Armenia prefer to move are Russia, the USA, France, Germany, Georgia and Ukraine.
