REPATRIATION REMEDY? THE OTHERS WILL COME WITHOUT BEING INVITED

[Yervant1]

REPATRIATION REMEDY? THE OTHERS WILL COME WITHOUT BEING INVITED

By Sargis Mkrtchyan

 

http://hetq.am/eng/opinion/6148/repatriation-remedy?-the-others-will-come-without-being-invited.html

15:59, November 4, 2011

 

There's an interesting contradiction evident not only between state

policy in Armenia and the reality that exists regarding emigration

and immigration, but also within declared state policy as well.

 

On the one hand, Armenian and international organizations, the mass

media, and lately state agencies and their representatives, even

including the president of Armenia, have been raising alarm bells

about emigration from Armenia.

 

They publish demographic data and organize debates on the looming

threat.

 

On the other hand, only certain state agencies and their

representatives have been inviting Armenians from the diaspora to

relocate to Armenia - to set up residences and businesses.

 

In a word, they are trying to organize immigration; repatriation.

 

It seems as if they want to overcome the threat of emigration with

immigration. I have the feeling that state agencies, not being able

to stem the tide of exodus from Armenia, are trying to get diaspora

Armenians to immigrate by making a number of offers and thus fill

the void left by those leaving the country.

 

There are contradictory numbers regarding the exodus from Armenia. But

what is farcical here is that even the smallest numbers will not

alter the depth of the tragedy.

 

For example, at one meeting where the exodus issue was being discussed,

it was stated that from 100,000 to 120,000 people left Armenia in

2010. One of the participants exploded in anger, rose to his feet,

and said that this statistic was a lie. The man proclaimed that only

40,000 people had emigrated from Armenia in 2010.

 

If we accept the official figures that Armenia's population is

3,200,000, then basic arithmetic shows that only 1.28% of the

population left Armenia in one year. Use of the word only is correct

in this case and not the previous.

 

Only 1.28% of the country's population emigrated in one year. However,

for the year 2011, we must use 3,160,000 and not 3,200,000 as our

basis number - that is if 40,000 left Armenia in 2010.

 

In this context, it remains a mystery why some continue to present

small numbers or believe in their validity.

 

Even an exodus of 1.28% of the population in just one year is a

tragedy and doesn't change the wider problem.

 

Let us return to the issue of immigration.

 

First, I doubt if 40,000 Armenians from the diaspora have immigrated

to Armenia in the past twenty years since re-independence. Most of the

repatriates have been Armenians from Iran and their numbers doesn't

exceed 20,000 at best.

 

In other words, in the past twenty years the total number of

"repatriates" doesn't even compare with the number of those leaving

in just one year. (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any official

data on the number of those immigrating to Armenia)

 

Secondly, and more importantly, is the following question - Why are

people leaving Armenia?

 

Why do people born and raised in Armenia, who have gone to school

here, played in the yards, have friends, girlfriends and relatives,

who have fallen in love, who visit the graves of loved ones, why do

they chose to leave Armenia?

 

If those in charge do not respond to this question and do not think

about removing the underlying motive, not only will we not have any

substantial immigration, but the exodus will continue unabated.

 

Then too, government officials will have a hard time convincing

diasporic Armenians that their invitations to relocate are sincere.

 

Preservation of the gene pool in Armenia is an issue of national

security. One of the top priorities of the government must be putting

a halt to the exodus - keeping Armenians in Armenia.

 

Immigration, i.e. getting Armenians from the diaspora to relocate,

isn't a priority issue in my estimation.

 

Even if the government was to get serious about organizing a new

wave of repatriation, given the reality on the ground and existing

conditions, such efforts would remain mere sloganeering and a pipedream

and would contribute nothing positive to Armenia.

 

The first priority to be tackled remains keeping Armenians living in

Armenia in Armenia and creating conditions for a dignified life.

 

If this happens, the others will come without any invitation.

[Yervant1]

ARMENIA'S TOUGH SELL TO THE DIASPORA: COME HOME

By Liana Aghajanian

 

The Atlantic - DC

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/armenias-tough-sell-to-the-diaspora-come-home/247865/

Nov 4 2011

 

Most Armenians live outside the "homeland," but the country is trying

to draw back some of the best and brightest to help fix the troubled

nation. So far they've gotten 12 recruits.

 

Armenia is known for having a high emigration rate, caused mainly by

labor migrants heading to Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet

Union in search of work. Now, a private initiative is striving

to mitigate the effects of the steady outflow of human capital by

enticing ethnic Armenians living abroad, particularly those living

settled lives in the West, to resettle in the "homeland."

 

The project, largely an online media campaign started by those who

have already made the move, is being framed in Peace Corps-like

terms and aims to appeal to idealistic impulses in the diaspora. Its

leading advocates -- drawing on a deeply held Diaspora concept

that Armenia's survival depends on a strong defensive capability --

exhibit a missionary zeal when discussing the allure of repatriation.

 

"I really believe that this land has some kind of magnetic pull,"

commented Los Angeles native Madlene Minassian, who decided with

her family to settle in Armenia about a decade ago. "A lot of people

are happy to live in a certain place, but I can say that I'm happy

and proud to be here, and I think that's such a different kind of

existence."

 

The Armenia 3500 Project strives to convince 3,500 ethnic

Armenians from the West to move to either Armenia, or the

majority-ethnic-Armenian, disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,

within the next three years. Those who opt for Karabakh would be

eligible for a free house as an additional incentive. The program is

run by a group of 30-somethings who have already repatriated.

 

These evangelists maintain that Armenia 3500 participants can become

difference-makers, hopefully creating jobs with their investments,

and pressing for better governance. "They bring language skills and

introduce new ideas, as well as new expectations, from business and

government," a project representative, who declined to be named,

said of the repatriates. "This all helps to stimulate investment,

jobs and reforms."

 

Only a few months old, the project has signed up 12 Diaspora Armenians

in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany to make the move.

 

Meeting the target quota of repatriates will not be easy, some

experts assert. One skeptic is history professor Stephan Astourian,

executive director of the Armenian Studies program at the University of

California, Berkeley. He noted that repatriation since Armenia gained

independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 has been minimal at best.

 

"The fact of the matter is that a miniscule amount of Armenians have

repatriated, with the exception of one country -- Iran," Astourian

said. He estimates the number of Armenian repatriates since 1991 at

5,000 to 10,000. Official data was not immediately available.

 

By contrast, the United Nations Development Programme estimates that

as many as 1.3 million Armenians have left Armenia since 1991.

 

Astourian claims that the reasons for low diaspora interest in

returning to Armenia to live are the same that have prompted Armenians

to leave - a lack of rule of law, and economic difficulties; plus,

rampant corruption.

 

"I think repatriation would be highly desirable if there was a

state based on the rule of law, with the control of the police,

real parliamentary life and judiciary," Astourian commented.

 

By Justyna Mielnikiewicz Armenia ranked 123rd out of 178 countries

in a 2010 Transparency International report measuring corruption;

slightly better than neighboring Azerbaijan, which was ranked 134th,

but far worse than next-door Georgia, in 68th place.

 

Armen Rakedjian has firsthand experience of the red tape and corruption

plaguing the region's Armenian communities. After relocating from Paris

to the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Shushi in 2004, Rakedjian got caught

up in a dispute over improperly registered property that ultimately

cost him his entire $50,000 investment. He blames his loss on the

alleged need to pay bribes and "high salaries" to correct the problem.

 

Nonetheless, Rakedjian decided to stay in Shushi, where he runs a

B&B with his wife, Cristina. In Karabakh, he says, he can preserve

his cultural identity. In France, "I don't have any insurance that my

daughter will stay Armenian, or the children of my daughter," Rakedjian

said. "I have to live here. I have to endure all the difficulties,

to have the possibility to remain Armenian."

 

The extent to which either the de facto government of Karabakh or

Armenia's Ministry of Diaspora lends a hand to repatriates making

this transition is unclear. Armenia currently has no state-funded

program covering repatriation. Representatives from the Ministry of

Diaspora, which is a frequent target of criticism for doing little

to support repatriates in Armenia, were not available for comment in

time for publication.

 

State-sponsored support could have helped Natasha Hillis and her

husband, Victor Sargissian, a dentist, with their move to Yerevan from

Ventura, California. Financial problems forced the couple and their

two young sons to move back to the United States this past summer.

 

Although Sargissian found work at a dentist's office, he complains

that business was slow, with most locals unable to afford regular

dental care. "Making a living to support the standard of living

that we're accustomed to here in the US was basically impossible,"

recounted Hillis, who taught English part-time. "I was making $4 an

hour, and my cab to and from the center cost me $3."

 

Many repatriates acknowledge that their expectations of life in Armenia

were unrealistic. To counter that, one Wynnewood, Pennsylvania-based

non-profit group, Birthright Armenia, offers travel fellowships to

diaspora members to work as short-term volunteers in Armenia without

committing to a permanent move. Twenty-five of the 550 participants

in the program since its 2003 launch still live in Armenia, according

to the organization's executive director, Sevan Kabakian.

 

Two of those participants -- Canadian freelance writer Nyree Abrahamian

and her American husband, Areg Maghakian, deputy director of operations

at the Armenia Tree Project -- have now been living in Armenia for

close to five years. Though they haven't ruled out the possibility

of returning to North America, the couple says they have put down

roots in Armenia.

 

Despite the lack of ready, well-paid employment, the attraction of

working in a developing country where they could have a greater impact

ultimately persuaded the pair to stay. "It's moving and changing

and twisting," Abrahamian said of Armenia's development. "Not only

do you get to see that, but you get to be a part of it and actually

affect it."

 

Diaspora groups hope that, eventually, more ethnic Armenians will

say the same.

 

This article originally appeared at EurasiaNet.org, an Atlantic

partner site.