ARMENIA REGISTERS POSITIVE ‘MIGRATION BALANCE’
By Anna Saghabalian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 15 2007

Armenia’s migration agency has posted data suggesting that the country
has seen a positive ‘migration balance’ in the past three years.

Gagik Yeganian, Head of the Government-affiliated Department for
Migration and Refugee Affairs, told RFE/RL that currently Armenia
has more arrivals than people departing from the country.

According to him, while emigration, or the number of people leaving
the country, steadily exceeded the number of visitors by some 40,000
in the late 1990s up until 2002, the situation has changed since.

The first positive ‘arrival-departure’ balance was registered in 2004
when the number of people coming to Armenia exceeded the number of
those leaving the country by 2,718. The ‘positive balance’ in the
following year made 12,000 people to reach 21,500 in 2006. Yeganian
says the growth tendency is observed this year as well.

Yeganian says despite the absence of complete data they can say with
confidence that some of those arriving in Armenia are former emigrants
and some of them return to their homeland to stay here.

The migration agency has also observed a significant year-on-year
growth — within the limits of 15-18 percent — of the volumes of
passenger transportation. According to Yeganian, this growth in the
six months of this year made 36 percent.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress