ST. PETERSBURG: The issue of migration has gained great importance over the past 10 years not only within the framework of various kinds of geopolitical events but also as a source of attracting additional resources — labor.
For many regions of Russia, as well as the UAE, the main challenge is the need for specialists with a high level of qualification, so the issue of attracting personnel is key. Russia and the UAE are among the top five countries in terms of the number of people involved as labor migrants.
According to a study conducted by the Roscongress Foundation, Russia and UAE have a positive migration balance and are one of the world’s largest centers of influx of migrants from near and far abroad. At the same time, the legal regulation of migration processes in the countries under consideration differs significantly from each other.
The report titled “Migration Policy of Russia and the UAE: Competitive Advantages in the Fight for Migrants” examines the trends of Russia’s migration policy compared to the tools used in Gulf countries, particularly the UAE.
Like most socioeconomic issues, migration has positive and negative properties, the effectiveness of which often depends on the degree of controllability of social processes.
This study was timed to coincide with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, at which the UAE was a guest country.
According to the report, since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of migrants around the world has increased by 62 percent, from 173 million in 2000 to 281 million in 2022; refugees by 86 percent, up to 26 million in 2022; internally displaced persons by 2.6 times, up to 55 million in 2022.
At the same time, the direction of migration changed much more slowly in both 2000 and 2022. The country with the highest share of international migrants was the UAE, and the region was Oceania.
The trend is the same in terms of the absolute number of migrants; over the years, the largest number of migrants has come to the US.
The growth of migration flows is associated with a whole list of problems both in the host as well as the origin countries. Some of the issues for the host countries include illegal migration, assimilation and adaptation and economic competition with the local population.
In the countries of origin of migrants, major problems include depletion of human capital, outflow of necessary personnel and demographic imbalance.
The key factors of a country’s competitiveness in the fight for migrants are social, not economic, as follows from the analysis.
Many countries can offer acceptable economic conditions for migrants. It is extremely difficult to stand out on the account of purely economic parameters. The study concludes that it is important to develop a social sphere accessible to migrants:
Education: It allows solving several tasks at once to integrate a person into the socioeconomic space of the country. Migrants mainly take advantage of higher education opportunities in the country, which gives them advantages for further assimilation. The host country is also interested in attracting the most talented youth.
Self-realization: Social elevators are an extremely convenient tool for creating a favorable environment in society and developing human potential. Today, most states are actively developing the possibility of using such tools. In Russia, for example, there are a number of projects of vertical social mobility such as “Russia is a country of opportunities.”
The quality of life: Most specialists, when choosing a country of residence, are guided by the quality of life, that is, living conditions and the availability of those services that will allow one to receive maximum comfort. In this vein, the formats of urban development, and the area of social security, and the quality of services provided become significant.
Assimilation: Often, countries within the framework of migration policy completely concentrate on tactical tasks related to replenishing those human resources that are required at the moment and, accordingly, do not pay close attention to retaining attracted specialists in the country for the long term. But if one considers migration in the logic of strategic potential, then it can be noted that the issues of assimilation become the most significant.
