Diaspora money transfers a way for Armenia’s survival
by Mariam Kharutyunyan

Agence France Presse — English
March 9, 2005 Wednesday 4:09 AM GMT

YEREVAN March 9 — Armenia’s economy, bled dry since the Soviet Union’s
fall and the war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
now depends on fund transfers from its sprawling diaspora for survival.

“Foreign transfers allow our citizens to keep a good level of life
which in its turn allows for an increase in the output aggregate,”
the Central Bank’s president Tigran Sargsyan stressed.

Since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, nearly a million Armenians
left Armenia, a resource-poor Caucasian republic facing economic
blockade from neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan due to the conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s largely Armenian province which
had revolted in 1990s.

Most had flocked to Russia, the United States and Europe.

The transfers of expatriate Armenians have gone up by over a half
last year to reach 740 million dollars, topping the country’s
600-million-dollar budget — and were due to climb to a billion
this year.

According to the central bank, these transfers make up a quarter of
Armenia’s economic growth.

Transfers bloomed, Sargsyan explained, as Armenians abroad saw their
own fortunes improve, while the links between the diaspora and its
motherland became ever stronger.

“Economic growth makes Armenia more attractive for the diaspora,
which invests in real estate and goes back to live in the homeland
of their origins,” Sargsyan said.

Meanwhile, many of Armenia’s remaining 3.7-million population lives
on the money sent by their relatives or friends working abroad.

“Other countries can count on natural resources such as oil. For
Armenia, its important diaspora is such a resource,” along with
immigrant workers, economist Levon Barkhudaryan said, adding that
repatriated funds help ease social and political tensions within.

However, other experts warn against the transfers’ darker side, saying,
like Vagram Avanesyan, that they are a handicap on local production
and a boost to imports, not to mention downright dependence.

Either way, many Armenians are driven to work across the border even
though it may mean a long time away from home.

“For years, my husband has been searching in vain for a job in Armenia,
and he had to go abroad, even though it was very hard for him to
leave his family,” mourned Anna, a 36-year-old mother of two.

“Every time he calls, he asks if there is a job for him in our
country.”

Like many other Armenians who mostly work in service, trade or
construction, Anna’s husband had been working for five years at
construction sites in a small Russian town and sends his family some
400 dollars each month.

“My daughter Marina has been working for two years as a babysitter
though she has a diploma from Yerevan’s polytechnic institute,” said
Vardan, a 60-year-old living on the money his elder daughter sends
him from the United States.

“No one is surprised anymore to see a former professor as a street
peddler in Moscow or a scientist as a taxi driver in Madrid,” Vardan
added bitterly.