BAKU, September 7 (RIA Novosti, Geray Dadashev) - Among the CIS countries, only Russia and Belarus have a positive balance of migration, a Russian official said Wednesday.
Alexander Kurtin, the president of the International Association of Pension and Social Funds, said that in 2003, immigration compensated for depopulation in Russia by 10% and in Belarus by 10.5%.
In the remaining CIS countries, there is a negative balance of migration, he said, speaking at the conference for Globalization and Social Protection of Labor Migrants, which began Wednesday in the Azeri capital. In 2003, the highest levels of migration out of CIS countries were in Armenia (25 people in every 10,000), Kyrgyzstan (33) and Tajikistan (17).
Migration out of Kazakhstan is slowing, Kurtin said. In 1999, 185 in every 10,000 left the country, which fell to only six by 2003. The country still had a negative balance of migration in 2004, but this year the trend is changing. During the first five months of 2005, 3000 more people moved into the country than out of it, compared to a negative figure of 5000 for the same period in 2004.
Most people who migrate out of the CIS go to more developed countries - 90% go to Germany, Israel or the U.S, Kurtin said.
