Number of people willing to move to Russia from Kazakhstan tripled since May

The number of people willing to move from Kazakhstan to Russia has tripled since May, Tengrinews.kz reports citing head of the temporary group of Federal Migration Service (FMS) of the consular section of Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan Marina Pusteko. “There is quite a significant increase. According to statistics, the number of people willing to move to Russia under the state (migration support) program has tripled since May,” FMS representative said. According to Marina Pusteko, 420-450 people a month submit applications in Astana. There are temporary groups in Almaty and Uralsk. “We receive 420-450 applications, as I said, and approve 260-280 applications a month. Around 120-130 people move out every month,” Pusteko said. According to her, the main reason for people to leave the country are discussions about the status of the Russian language in Kazakhstan and unemployment in remote areas. The majority of emigrants are people with technical and higher education. “These are educated people. Professors, PhD and representatives of state authorities move as well,” she said. As for the ethnic content, the majority of people moving are ethnic Russians and other Slavic ethnicities. But emigrants also include other ethnic groups: Germans, Poles and even Kazakhs. “There are not many Kazakhs. I can say there have been around 10 of them this year. We do not normally ask for reasons, but many of them had Russian spouses,” Pusteko said. Top Russian regions by the inflow immigrants are Omsk, Novosibirsk and Kaliningrad oblasts. The state program assisting voluntary immigration of Russian-speaking population was adopted by a decree of Russia's president in the end of June 2006 and is scheduled to be complete by 2012. Currently Russian authorities are considering making its term unlimited.