The International Migrants Day. Valdai Club Discusses Migration Issues
On December 19, the Valdai Club hosted a discussion on migration issues. The discussion was timed to coincide with the International Migrants Day, which is celebrated annually on December 18. Over the centuries, migrants have made a major contribution to the cultural, social and economic development of host countries. Today, more than 281 million people, almost 3.6% of the world’s population, are involved in the processes of international migration. The international migration has a tremendous impact on demographic dynamics, labour markets and socio-economic processes in both receiving and sending countries. Russia has recently become the centre of Eurasian migration. The Eurasian migration system has rapidly become one of the four largest in the world, along with those of North America, Western Europe, and Middle East. Migration affects not only the economies and societies of the countries involved in migration processes, but also the fate of the migrants themselves and their families. The narrowness of legal adaptation channels, the lack of official services for foreign workers in host countries often form alternative, not always legal practices that help solve such problems. Immigration directly affects the host society: pushing migrants into the “grey zone” increases the service sector associated with the shadow economy, and sometimes with the criminal one. Is it fair to consider migration an unambiguously negative phenomenon? What are the mechanisms for protecting the rights of foreign workers in various host countries? How can they be improved? What migration problems does Russia face? How can they be solved? These and other questions were answered by the participants of the discussion, who include the authors of the Valdai Club report “The Social Problems of International Migrants”.
On December 19, the Valdai Club hosted a discussion on migration issues. The discussion was timed to coincide with the International Migrants Day, which is celebrated annually on December 18. Over the centuries, migrants have made a major contribution to the cultural, social and economic development of host countries. Today, more than 281 million people, almost 3.6% of the world’s population, are involved in the processes of international migration. The international migration has a tremendous impact on demographic dynamics, labour markets and socio-economic processes in both receiving and sending countries. Russia has recently become the centre of Eurasian migration. The Eurasian migration system has rapidly become one of the four largest in the world, along with those of North America, Western Europe, and Middle East. Migration affects not only the economies and societies of the countries involved in migration processes, but also the fate of the migrants themselves and their families. The narrowness of legal adaptation channels, the lack of official services for foreign workers in host countries often form alternative, not always legal practices that help solve such problems. Immigration directly affects the host society: pushing migrants into the “grey zone” increases the service sector associated with the shadow economy, and sometimes with the criminal one. Is it fair to consider migration an unambiguously negative phenomenon? What are the mechanisms for protecting the rights of foreign workers in various host countries? How can they be improved? What migration problems does Russia face? How can they be solved? These and other questions were answered by the participants of the discussion, who include the authors of the Valdai Club report “The Social Problems of International Migrants”.