Introductory Remarks at Security Council Meeting on Immigration Policy
March 17, 2005
The Kremlin, Moscow
Вступительное слово на заседании Совета Безопасности по миграционной политике
17 марта 2005 года
Москва, Кремль
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, dear colleagues.
Today we are to examine the issue of immigration policy. An effectively implemented immigration policy is of critical importance for our country. This is why the Security Council is examining this subject. I just want to remind you that the last time we analysed this matter was in October 2001.
Since that time, a whole series of concrete measures, both legislative and administrative, have been taken in this area. Immigration issues play a considerable part in decision making at both federal and regional level.
But at the same time, immigration is something that is changing all the time. Many countries take this into account and Russia is no exception in this respect, all the more so as our social and economic possibilities have increased over recent years.
Keeping this in mind, we need to act rapidly to adjust our immigration policy strategy and turn the problems of the past into an advantage for the future. We can do this.
In order to achieve this, we first need to make improvements to the state immigration policy and we also need to tie it in more closely with our countrys real social and economic development needs.
It is clear that immigration issues require constant and vigilant attention. This is partly because Russia has international obligations it must abide by, but even more, it is because we must take urgent steps to resolve the countrys economic and demographic problems.
We all know that Russias working population is on the decline and that it will not be long before this begins to have a negative effect on our economic growth and on our ability to fulfil various social commitments.
We should also keep in mind something else. According to the Federal Migration Service, immigration flows are decreasing with every passing year. It is a fact today that immigration no longer has a positive effect on the demographic situation in the country. It no longer compensates for the natural population decline, as was the case in the mid-1990s. Our task today, therefore, is to create additional conditions for attracting to Russia people who can make a positive contribution to our countrys development. This does not mean, of course, that we should ignore other tasks such as encouraging the birth rate, increasing life expectancy and so on. But immigration is a crucially important factor and I think that you will agree with me that we have so far not used it effectively.
Many countries have successfully resolved similar problems and continue to do so. Their success has been thanks to a competent immigration policy. They put in place targeted policies to encourage people with capital, knowledge and good qualifications into their economic, scientific and cultural spheres.
Indeed, our specialists are also among those who leave for countries with an effective immigration policy. We are well aware of this. Specialists estimate that more than 100,000 scientists working in what have been traditionally strong sectors in Russia such as mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology left the country between 1989 and 2001. Most of these people were mature people aged 35-45.
We must continue to work on ensuring good living and working conditions for our specialists in their native country, but at the same time we should also take steps to ensure that foreign specialists and qualified workers find suitable living conditions here in Russia. Our primary task today is to encourage immigration. I stress that we are talking about encouraging immigration and not just compensating for our population decline.
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