Building Local Capacities to Reduce Illegal Migration and Trafficking

Within the framework of “Building Local Capacities to Reduce Illegal Migration and Trafficking” Project implemented by “Armenian Caritas” Benevolent NGO, a report titled “Armenian Labour Migrants in Russian Federation: Difficulties Abroad and Challenges at Home” was conducted. The target regions were, and Gegharkunik, Lori and Shirak provinces and it was conducted through regional partner NGOs’ channels and compiled by the expert, Valentina Gevorgyan. The report aimed at finding out what the reasons for Armenian migrations to leave for the Russian Federation are, what kind of challenges they face in the Russian Federation and what the issues encountered in Armenia after their return are. According to the findings of the report, the main reason for emigration from Armenia is finding employment opportunities or better jobs with decent salaries. Coming to the challenges encounters in the RF it came out that part of difficulties refers to employer and employee relations in terms of either being paid less than agreed before or even, in some cases, not being paid at all or the conditions and type of work is completely different from promised ones. Not less important part of difficulties is related to the lack of information on the new legal framework for migrants after Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union as well as language barriers. Interestingly enough, the findings of the report indicate that one of the most important difficulties faced in Armenia are related to reintegration in the Armenian reality, worsening of family relations which not rarely ends up with divorces.