Ruben Vardanyan: Armenia needs a modern immigration policy

ArmInfo.For Armenia, which is experiencing a severe demographic crisis, the first step in achieving high rates of population growth should be the development of a modern  immigration policy. A similar opinion was expressed on his Facebook  page by social investor, initiator of the public movement The FUTURE  ARMENIAN Ruben Vardanyan.

He determined his point of view by the need to make significant  changes in the environment that has developed in Armenia, which, in  his opinion, is possible only if about 50,000 families (over 150,000  people) move to the country.

In this context, he stressed that it is necessary to develop  immigration policy based on the experience of previous waves of  repatriation. In particular, Vardanyan said that in the 1920s and  1930s, more than 16 thousand Armenians arrived in the Armenian SSR,  mainly from Europe and Russia. Despite ideological differences, part  of the world Armenian elite also decided to move to Soviet Armenia at  the invitation of the Soviet government and the Armenian Apostolic  Church. At the end of the 40s, as a result of the purposeful  Stalinist policy of repatriation, about 150 thousand Armenians from  Greece, Syria, Egypt, Iran, France and the United States moved to the  Armenian SSR. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a wave of refugees  came from Azerbaijan. In the 2000s, about 30,000 Syrian Armenians  arrived in independent Armenia, and about the same number of refugees  from Artsakh since the end of last year.  However, he stressed that  mass resettlement does not always go smoothly, as returnees find  themselves in a different social and cultural context, which  inevitably creates friction between them and local residents.   Rejection was noticed from both sides. Some repatriates, unable to  adapt and experiencing disappointment, left back, for someone Armenia  became a transit point on the way to other countries, "Vardanyan  stressed.  At the same time, he pointed to wonderful examples of  mutual enrichment: "Thus, in the first half of the twentieth century,  the scientific and cultural elite of Soviet Armenia largely emerged  from the repatriates.  They have enriched and diversified social and  cultural life, bringing with them the knowledge of foreign languages,  jazz, the comfort of street cafes, the national cuisine of other  countries and much more>.

In this regard, the investor emphasized the need to carefully study  each of the waves of repatriation, work on mistakes, analyze all the  pros and cons in order to avoid repeating previous mistakes and  massive outflows of disappointed repatriates. In addition, according  to Vardanyan, it is necessary to study the experience of repatriation  that other countries have, which will require serious efforts.  <What  mechanisms need to be created to make it easier for people to  immigrate and adapt? Should it be simplified processes for obtaining  a residence permit and citizenship, at least two languages of  international communication as workers, special educational programs  for children, public-private agencies in charge of these issues  instead of ineffective ministries and departments? What else?>,  Vardanyan asked.  At the same time, he pointed out that not only the  state should act as the initiator of the transformations, but society  also needs to make efforts to integrate its new members. <All this is  important to discuss right now, if we want to take advantage of the  unique potential of the Diaspora, which is really capable of  transforming our society in a fairly short time and thereby helping  Armenia achieve explosive economic development, "the entrepreneur  emphasized.