Millions of Central Asians will Soon Be Flooding into Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 30 – Desertification of arable land in the Central Asian countries combined with continued booming expansion of the populations of those countries mean that in the near future millions of Central Asians will flood into the Russian Federation, according to the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

            Hundreds of thousands of people from those countries have already come to Russia, but the relatively small size of this flow over the last 30 years, one made possible by the improvements in the region at the end of Soviet times, is coming to an end; and Moscow must be ready for a flood (vesti.uz/srednjaja-azija-obrechena-na-velikoe-pereselenie/).

            The amount of water from glaciers in the Pamirs and Tien Shan has fallen by 37 percent over the last 34 years, the geographers say; and this has led to a decline in the amount of arable land of more than 20 percent. That has led to declines in production and the income of farmers in the region and the flight of ever more of them.

            Today, some 4.5 million people cross the Russian border every year, but that number will go up in the coming years and ever more of those arriving from Central Asia will be migrant workers seeking a new life, a trend that will only intensify further if the populations of the Central Asian countries continue to grow.

            That sets the stage for real problems inside the Russian Federation for, as the Multi-National telegram channel has warned, none of Russia’s indigenous peoples “can threaten the ethnic balance in Russia, but migrants,” especially if they become more numerous quickly, can easily do so (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/04/kremlin-worried-newly-minted-russian.html).