labour migration

7 Posts

•

0 Followers

Regular labour migrants who have been unable to travel abroad this year due to COVID-19. Photo: Anahit Harutyunyan/OC Media.

Armenia

Migrant workers left in Armenia due to COVID-19 face unemployment

by Anahit Harutyunyan

•5 min read

The usual rhythm of life in the villages of Armenia was to go abroad to earn money in the spring and return in the winter. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now forced to stay on their own land, turning to agriculture to survive. ‘For 20 years I have been travelling abroad to work, but this year I didn’t go; we were left without work because the borders are closed’, Hamlet Grigoryan, a resident of the village of Vahramaberd in north-western Armenia, told OC Media. Almost every fam

Armenia

Voice | ‘My family urged me to return to Armenia; but I decided to stay in China’

by Gayane Mkrtchyan

•5 min read

Emma Petrosyan, a 28-year-old English teacher from Alaverdi, Armenia, has lived and worked in the Chinese city of Tianjin for a year and a half. When the coronavirus hit China, unlike many others, Emma chose to stay. ‘My mobile phone almost exploded with messages and calls [because of the coronavirus]: my family, friends, and acquaintances urged me to return to Armenia. But I decided to stay.’ ‘This is my home, where I feel safe. I think it’s harder and more dangerous to leave, go to the ai

Agriculture

Chechnya to punish ‘spreading rumours’ about food quality

by OC Media

•3 min read

The Chechen authorities have announced they will punish people for ‘spreading rumours’ about the quality of local agricultural produce, Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov announced on Monday. The move came in response to reports on social media that Chinese farmers working in Chechnya were using harmful pesticides. Multiple audio recordings circulated widely on social media demanding the deportation of Chinese people from Chechnya. The anonymous recordings described in detail how Chinese farm

Armenia

Living in an ‘enemy land’: the Armenian women working abroad

by Armine Avetisyan

•7 min read

Low pay and high unemployment have led many Armenian women to seek work beyond the country’s borders. Despite fears of trafficking, often abusive working conditions, and a closed border with Turkey, the allure of higher salaries have led thousands to leave Armenia, mainly to Russia and even Turkey — a country many consider an ‘enemy land’. From a hospital to a sock factory Sixty-year-old Anna Hovhannisyan (not her real name) has been working as a nurse for more than three decades in h

Armenia

Armenia’s seasonal children

by Armine Avetisyan

•6 min read

With Armenia’s soaring labour migration rates, working-age men have become a rare sight in many villages. Their wives have grown used to seeing them only once a year, if at all, and raising the children alone isn’t only a matter of necessity — it has become a fact of life. According to official statistics, the permanent population of Armenia has dropped by 30,700 in the last 2.5 years, falling below 3 million in July 2017. The regions most affected by migration are Shirak, Lori, Gegharku

Armenia

Armenia’s higher education in crisis

by Gayane Mkrtchyan

•5 min read

With declining funding from the government, Armenia’s higher education system is facing crisis. On top of this, politicisation, outward migration, high fees for such a poor country, and a lack of clear strategy for the sector have left many experts worried. [Read in Armenian — Հոդվածը հայերեն կարդացեք] A politicised system According to Vagram Soghomonyan from the Society of Civic Education, a grassroots advocacy group, Armenian universities do not develop critical thinking among stu

Feature Stories

East wind: Central Asian migration to Kabardino-Balkaria

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•7 min read

Young people from Kabardino-Balkaria have increasingly been leaving in droves. They move in search of better salaries and living conditions. In their place, more and more foreign labour migrants are arriving, but not all of them are welcomed with open arms. Labour migration in Kabardino-Balkaria has two stable trends: an outflow of indigenous people of reproductive age, to Stavropol and Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Europe, and Canada, and the growth of the Asian community, m