COORDINATING IMMIGRATION AND VISA

Popilation Density Worldwide

Demography, a common concern

 Демография, oбщая забота

La demografia, preoccupazione comune

La démographie -un souci partagé-

Demographie, ein gemeinsames Besorgnis.

One of the most stringent questions of present-days Russia has been its continuity with the former Russian Empire .

Contrary to Portugal, Spain, England France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, whose empires extended beyond the Oceans, Russia Empire was built up into the “empty” areas of Eastern Russia, of Central Asia, of Siberia and of the Arctic Circle.

This characteristic of the Russian Empire facilitated integration, because of the similarity of living habits of the sedentary inhabitants of Western Russia and the ones of the Eastern Steppes, which, from another point of view, were very limited in quantity, and were allowed to continue their traditional way of life notwithstanding the annexation to Russia and the influx of Russian (or other European) colonists.

From another point of view, the very cold climates of these territories rendered difficult, since the beginning, their full-fledged colonization, which was reached, to a large extent, thanks only to forced work and to military. This fact impeded Siberia to experience the strong economic growth which, during these years, characterized similar countries, like Canada, the US, or Australia, an economic growth implying, reversal, the almost complete annihilation of native inhabitants.

As it is well known, one of the characteristics of the Stalinist terror was the one of continuing and developing the Tsarist practice to mass deport delinquents and political prisoners to Siberia, for utilizing their workforce in an area where free Russian would not have gone. This system was described by Aleksandr’ Sol’zenitzin, as “Archipelag Gul’ag”. All Siberia was scattered, in that period, of “GuLag” , and even the so-to-say “free” inhabitants of Siberia were often political exiles, and, in any case, could not freely cross the internal border between Siberia and Russia proper (“prepiska”).

With destalinization. the number of political prisoners in the GuLag (“Zeky”) diminished, but the system of “Prepiska” was not abolished.

Only with Perestrojka Russians were allowed to cross freely internal borders. This meant that millions and millions of Russian citizens stormed westwards.

To them, we must add ethnic Russians fleeing from the Republics and Center Asiatic immigrants to Russia.

The present demographic situation of Russia is economically and strategically rather unbalanced. In general, there has been a strong demographic decrease, due, from one side, to family attitudes similar to the ones of Western Europe (like Italy, Germany or Sweden); from the other side, to the unique economic collapse of the Eltzin era (we must keep in mind that just now, after 20 years, the standard of living of Russians has come back to the one of the former Soviet Union, when also the  much poorer Republics were taken into account for statistical purposes).

Secondly, there has been a strong immigration, in the last 20 years, into Russia proper, and especially into Moscow, which, now is the largest city in Europe after Istanbul. This population is largely constituted by citizens of the former Republics, which Russia is just now starting to naturalize. 25 millions Ethnic Russians live outside the Russian Federation, most of them in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but with strong presences in Latvia, in Transnistria, in France, Germany and England.

Large areas of the Russian Federation, also of European Russia (like Chechnya) have been voided from ethnic Russians, and live according to Asiatic standards (Islam, Shari’a).

The face of Siberia is changing dramatically from day to day. The defrost of the Polar Circle is revitalising the climatic conditions of some millions of years ago (as described in the Indian and Persian sacred books: Veda and Bundahishn).The ice is disappearing, the climate is becoming milder and milder, especially in the south of Siberia and along the Pacific Ocean. This fact does not just transform Siberia into one of the largest arable lands of the world, but, also, is facilitating the economic activities which already were established in the region (minerals and fuel extraction, navigation).

The riches of Siberia grows from day to day, almost without the need to do anything. Unfortunately, Russian people do not love (for historical reasons) to live in Siberia, notwithstanding the enticements of the Government. So, these huge economic opportunities which Siberia is offering to Russia are not sufficiently exploited at the moment,in spite of the activism of the Government and its efforts to revitalise Donji Vostok, Novosibirsk and Yamal.

Moreover, Russia is justifiably  afraid of the fact that other countries could try to appropriate Siberia’s resources. It has already experienced similar situations in the period of occupation, by Japanese and Czechs, of Siberia, during the Civil War, as well as the uncontrolled export of oil revenues by the Oligarchs during the Eltzin period.

In the last period, some Western Politicians (like Madelaine Albright), have accused Russia to be “greedy”, because they want to keep Siberia only for them. This has just increased the worries of Russians. On the other side, Chinese, Korean and, even, Japanese, immigrants are settling alongside the Chinese border, in that Region of Donji Vostok, which, before the “Unequal Treaties” with China in the XIX Century, constituted the core provinces of the Manchu (Jurchen) dynasty.

The attitude of the Russian political world towards the Siberian question is split. The tentative to have immigrant Ethnic Russians resettling in Siberia has substantially failed. American oil companies have been substituted with the more acceptable  Europeans, like the Italian Eni and Enel,  German enterprises and, lately, the British BP. The Russian State has been obliged, even in the absence of more palatable solutions, to accept even “land grabbing” by Indian, Chinese, Indonesian and Arabic agro-alimentary conglomerates.On the other side, there are concerns about the growing resentment against foreigners in public opinion, and about the possible birth of a Siberian autonomism.

The best solution remains  to share the resources with Europe, and, especially, with Italy and Germany, and this is precisely the direction towards which the Authorities are pushing. However, for being able to carry out this policy up to its end, two prerequisites would be needed:

-    a better  knowledge of the existing opportunities, by a larger number of potential investors and settlers;

-     a higher shared level of confidence in a common future for Europe and for Russia.

In the last period, Russia, having realized that Europe is only partially ready to follow it in the Siberian adventure, has modified also its stance towards China, re-orienting dramatically its own exchanges and collaboration in the direction of China (although  the  contract whereby  one half of Russian production will be directed towards China has not yet been signed), and, in general, is re-launching a policy of open doors for investments of any possible nationality.I.a., arge areas of Donij Vostok (as well as a lot of Chinese-Russian  border territories) will be devoted to  Russian-Chinese Joint-Ventures.

However, the most important question concerning Siberia is not yet fixed.Siberia is one of the largest countries , and contains most of natural resources of the world, but  Russia is  not in  a position to populate Siberia with a sufficient number of citizens conceiving themselves as Russians.Russia alone, with its 150.000.000 inhabitants, has not the required demographical strength  for filling Siberia. Not even Europe, by itself, has this capability. However, a new geo-political complex (“Eurussia”), characterized by a multipolar and pluralistic identity, could develop a new “mixed” Siberian people, with its own identity, which could satisfy these “demographic” needs. In fact, both Russia and  Europe, are the target of a continuous inflow of immigrants, from Eastern Europe, but also from the Middle East, from Africa and from South America. In case Siberia would develop, as it is possible, all of its natural resources, including agriculture and tourism, and the standard of living there would  become higher, there is no reason why the immigration influx, under the joint control of Europeans and Russians, could not be diverted, at least partially,  towards Siberia. This would suppose that Russia and Europe join their destinies more deeply, and that they develop a joint identity, which will be shared also by the "New Siberians".

We understand very well that this seems to be a very long and difficult task, for a far-away future. We agree that the task is not simple. It requires strong synergies between, from one side, Russia itself, and, from the other side, at least a selected group of European interests - including some politicians, some industrialists and intellectuals -.

The first step is already under way: it is the existing agreement on visa simplification, which should open the doors to the "Eurasiatic Visa-Free Area ", under discussion since a long time, but presently very controversial. Not only the Baltic States are traditionally contrary, but also there is a trend, both in Russia and in Europe , to tighten immigration policies.For the above reasons, a parallel, if not preliminary, step, should be  to further foster mutual interrelationships, in industry and culture, with special reference to Siberia. Another  step would be to create a Europewide network, aiming at removing prejudices existing towards Russia in general and Siberia in particular, and promoting concrete joint initiatives.
The Russian Ambassador with NATO in Brussels, Rogozin, has correctely remarked recently that, when the Chairman of the EU Commission Barroso