The role of attachment to place in migration decisions of the population of the Russian North

Abstract

The regions that make up the Russian North experienced considerable out-migration during the transition period. Many living and working in the Russian North had been lured to the region by a Soviet-era package of labor market incentives. This paper tests the role that attachment to place played in the migration decisions of the northern population. The paper draws upon both quantitative and qualitative data. The main source of quantitative data will be questions on place-of-birth and length of residency from the 1989 Soviet and 2002 Russian population censuses. Qualitative data from surveys will be used to determine factors behind migration decisions, as will the changing role of the Russian government in labor supply and migration to and from the North. The paper finds that place-specific social capital was quite significant as a factor in determining the number and destinations of persons migrating out of the Russian North. The rather sudden collapse of the Soviet Union's development and labor market policies toward its northern periphery and the migration decisions of the region's population constitute a ‘natural experiment’ that has applications to similar regions elsewhere.

Acknowledgements

The research presented here is part of a project of the European Science Foundation (ESF EUROCORES Programme BOREAS) called ‘Moved by the State: Perspectives on Relocation and Resettlement in the Circumpolar North (MOVE).’ The US portion of this project was funded by the National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, Arctic Social Sciences Program (award no. ARC-0705654). MOVE is an endorsed International Polar Year 2007–2008 project (IPY project number 436). A preliminary version of this paper was presented at ICASS VI, Nuuk, Greenland, 22–26 August 2008 in a session organized by Peter Schweitzer ‘Moved by the State: Perspectives on Migration and Relocations in the Circumpolar North.’

Notes

1. The term materik (mainland) is often used by residents of the North to refer to the regions of central Russia. It is a conceptual construct that distinguishes between living in the north versus the rest of Russia. It refers to the sense that the isolated and distant northern settlements are like a series of islands separate from the more densely populated and well-connected regions of the central part of the country.

2. The city of Norilsk (population of 221,908 in 2002), administratively part of the Krasnoyark Kray but physically located in the Taymyr AO, is also included in the Far North, although it cannot be included as there are no comparable data on the city.

3. There seems to be a data-recording or data-processing error with respect to answers to the questions on place of birth and length of residency for some AOs. For the Khanty-Mansiy, Yamal-Nenets, Evenki, Chukotka, and Koryak AOs, the number indicating that they were born in a region and were living in the region at the time of the census was far less than the number indicating that they had lived there continuously since birth. For instance, of the total population of 1,282,396 persons in the Khanty-Mansiy Okrug, only 1,646 persons indicated that they were born there, while 280,301 indicated that they had lived there continuously since birth. Presumably, there was some confusion among respondents as to whether ‘region’ meant the Khanty-Mansiy Okrug or Tyumen Oblast to which it is subordinated. To compute the number born in the region for these okrugs, the number of persons indicating that they were born in the okrug and the number indicating that they had been born in the larger unit to which the okrug was subordinated, were added together. For the Khanty-Mansiy Okrug, those indicating they were born in okrug (1646), plus those born in the oblast (352,760) were summed to get obtain a total of 354,406.

4. The survey was carried out as part of preparation of the Northern Restructuring Project, a loan that the Russian government made from the World Bank in order to assist persons who wished to voluntarily migrate from three northern regions, Vorkuta, Norilsk, and Magadan Bank, The World Bank (2001) Project Appraisal Document on a Proposed Loan in the Amount of US $80 million Equivalent to the Russian Federation for a Northern Restructuring Project. In Human Development Sector Unit (The World Bank 2001). Russia Country Department, Europe and Central Asia Region (Ed.), The World Bank.

5. The figure of 43 million refers to the total number of the 15 titular groups of the 15 successor states to the Soviet Union.

6. According to data on place-of-birth, 69.1% of the population lived in the region in which they were born in 1989, while 48.8% had lived in the region continuously since birth, according to the length-of-residency data. The difference being those who had moved away and returned.

7. ‘Newcomers’ to a region in 1989 was defined as those who had arrived in the most recent 10 years or less, while ‘newcomers’ in the 2002 census are those who had migrated to a region during the period 1992–2002, or in the previous 10 years and 10 months. There shouldn't be any recall issues asking respondents if they had arrived since 1992 as that was the date the Soviet Union broke apart – a significant date for people in the FSU.

8. Using a slightly different measure of those who had lived in a region since birth plus those who had lived in a region for 10 years or longer.