By definition, internal migration is the resettlement of a population within a country from one region to another. As a rule, this flow is caused by economic and social reasons. Internal resettlement is the opposite of external when residents leave their country and settle abroad.
General trends
Urbanization is a key factor in internal migration around the world. The scale of the consequences of urban growth is so great that some researchers call this process nothing more than “the great migration of the peoples of the 20th century.” In search of a better life, the villagers are rapidly leaving their native villages. This process also applies to Russia. Its trends will be discussed below. As for most developed countries, urbanization in them stopped at around 80%. That is, four out of five citizens of Germany or the United States live in cities.
In countries where the population is small or uneven, internal migration takes the form of new settlements. Human history knows many such examples. In Canada, the USA, Brazil and China, the population was initially concentrated in the eastern regions. When the resources of those places began to run out, people naturally went to explore the western provinces.
The history of internal migration in Russia
In every historical era, internal migration in Russia had its own specific features, while always remaining a stable process. In the IX – XII centuries. Slavs settled the Upper Volga basin. Migration was directed to the north and northeast. Until the second half of the 19th century, it was notable for its small scale, since serfdom in the countryside restrained it.
Colonization affected the European north, as well as the Urals, where the resettlement took on a "mining" character. From the Lower Volga region, Russians migrated south, to New Russia and the Caucasus. Large-scale economic development of Siberia began only in the middle of the XIX century. In Soviet times, the eastern direction became the main one. In a planned economy, people were sent to remote areas where new cities or roads were to be built. In the 1930s forced Stalinist industrialization began. Together with collectivization, she pushed many millions of Soviet citizens out of the village. Also, internal population migration was caused by forced deportations of entire peoples (Germans, Chechens, Ingush, etc.).
Modernity
In modern Russia, internal migration is manifested in several trends. First of all, it is visible in the division of the population into rural and urban. This ratio determines the degree of urbanization of the country. Today, 73% of Russia's residents live in cities, and 27% in villages. Exactly the same numbers were during the last census in the Soviet Union in 1989. At the same time, the number of villages increased by more than 2 thousand, but the number of rural settlements, in which at least 6 thousand people live, halved. Such disappointing statistics indicate that by the end of the 90s. internal migration has led to the risk of more than 20% of villages disappearing. Today, the indicators are more encouraging.
In Russia, there are two types of urban centers - urban-type villages and cities. How are they determined? According to the criteria, a locality is recognized as urban if the proportion of residents employed in agriculture does not exceed 15%. There is another barrier. The city should have at least 12 thousand inhabitants. If internal migration leads to a decrease in population and a drop in numbers below this bar, the status of the settlement may be changed.
"Magnets" and the outskirts
The Russian population is distributed unevenly over the vast territory of the country. Most of it is concentrated in the Central, Volga and Southern Federal Districts (26%, 22% and 16%, respectively). At the same time, very few people live in the Far East (only 4%). But no matter how skewed the numbers are, internal migration is a constant, ongoing process. Over the past year, 1.7 million people took part in movements around the country. This is 1.2% of the country's population.
The main “magnet” to which internal migration of the Russian Federation leads is Moscow and its satellite cities. The increase is observed in St. Petersburg with the Leningrad region. Two capitals are attractive as job centers. Almost all other regions of the country are experiencing a decrease in migration (more people leave from there than they come there).
Regional dynamics
In the Volga Federal District, the largest migration growth is noted in Tatarstan, in the South - in the Krasnodar Territory. In the Urals, positive numbers are observed only in the Sverdlovsk region. The population travels there from the Siberian and Far Eastern regions, where migration decline is everywhere observed. This process has been going on for several decades.
Internal migration is the main cause of population decline in the Siberian Federal District, which in exchange with other regions for 2000-2008. lost 244 thousand inhabitants. The numbers leave no doubt. For example, in the Altai Territory over the same period, the decrease was 64 thousand people. And only two regions in this district are characterized by a small migration growth - these are Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions.
Far East
The Far East has lost more than other residents in recent years. Both external and internal migration work for this. But it was precisely the relocation of citizens to other regions of their native country that led to the loss of 187 thousand people over the past ten years. Most people leave Yakutia, Chukotka and the Magadan region.
The statistics of the Far East in a certain sense are logical. This region is located on the opposite end of the country from the capital. Many of its residents leave for Moscow in order to realize themselves and forget about isolation. Living in the Far East, people spend huge money on periodic trips or flights to the West. Sometimes round-trip tickets can cost the whole salary. All this leads to the fact that internal migration is increasing and expanding. Countries with a vast territory like air need affordable transport infrastructure. Its creation and timely modernization is the most important challenge for modern Russia.
The impact of the economy and climate
The primary factors determining the nature of internal migration are economic factors. The Russian bias arose due to the uneven level of socio-economic development of the country's regions. As a result, territories were differentiated in terms of quality and standard of living. In remote and border areas they are too low compared to capitals, which means they are unattractive to the population.
The vast territory of Russia is also characterized by the climatic factor. If conditional Belgium is homogeneous in its temperature indicators, then in the case of the Russian Federation, everything is much more complicated. A more liveable and attractive climate pulls people south and center of the country. Many northern cities arose in the Soviet era thanks to a system of orders and various shock construction projects. In a free market, people born in these regions tend to leave them.
Social and military factors
The third group of factors is social, which are expressed in historical and family ties. They are a common cause of the so-called. “Return migration”. Residents of the eastern and northern regions, leaving for Moscow, often return home, because there they still have family, relatives and friends.
Another group of factors is the military threat. Armed conflicts force people to leave their homes and settle in safe regions, away from the hotbed of bloodshed. In Russia, such a factor was of serious importance in the 1990s, when a fierce war continued for several years in the North Caucasus, and primarily in Chechnya.
Prospects
The development of internal migration is hindered by uneven housing prices and poorly developed housing markets in the regions. To solve this problem, state support and financing of problem areas, republics and territories are necessary. Regions need to increase the income of the working population, additional jobs, increase the revenue side of the budget, reduce the need for budget financing.
Other measures will be favorable. The revitalization of internal migration is facilitated by a reduction in the negative impact of industry on the environment, as well as an improvement in the demographic situation.