ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (Number 34) Year 2018 • Page 32

Youth migration as a factor of detaining the regional economic development

La migración juvenil como factor de detención del desarrollo económico regional

Svetlana V. LOBOVA 1; Elena V. KLETSKOVA 2

Received: 12/06/2018 • Approved: 30/06/2018

Content

1. Introduction

2. Analysis of the demographic and socio-economic situation in the Altai region

3. The causes and consequences of youth migration in the Altai region

Аcknowledgment

References

1. Introduction

The current migration situation in Russia is characterized by a poorly managed outflow of population from many regions. As in many other countries, in Russia, migration, which is a change in the permanent place of residence of individuals or social groups and is expressed in moving to another region or country, has a pronounced age profile. Peak values ​​of intensive migration fall on years of higher and professional education, as well as in the period of job search after receiving vocational education. According to studies based on data from the Russian population censuses of 1989, 2002 and 2010, after graduating from secondary school in some Russian municipalities, the outflow of young people may reach more than half of the total population (Mkrtchyan, 2017). The causes and consequences of youth migration are complex and contradictory.

Migration in society occurs for various reasons and in most cases it is caused by economic reasons: the desire of people to find jobs, get their own housing, provide themselves and their families, find an opportunity to realize their knowledge, improve their qualifications and others. Considering migration from this angle, it can be considered as a positive phenomenon that can balance the number of able-bodied population, positively affect the development of society. In this article, we focus more on the consequences of youth migration for the Russian region. On the one hand, it causes the problems of depopulation of territories, strengthening of regional disproportions and disintegration. The depopulation of many areas of Siberia, including the border areas, due to the huge role of this part of the country as a geopolitical bridgehead and geostrategic reserve of Russia, ultimately, can undermine the integrity of the state, the harvest of its geopolitical stability. On the other hand, the labor potential of the region is being destroyed, the demographic burden is increasing and the potential of population reproduction is limited.

And, since at present the training systems do not work: workers; advanced training of specialists in the field of management; industrialization; improvement of technological processes, this further aggravates the situation due to the lack of professional specialists in these areas.

2. Analysis of the demographic and socio-economic situation in the Altai region

One of the regions of Siberia, for which the task of retaining the territory becomes one of the priority, is the Altai region. The decrease in the population of the region due to inter-regional migration has been a matter of serious concern for Altaian researchers for many years, allocating both direct and indirect losses caused by migration loss in exchange with other territories of Russia. Since the mid-90s of the 20th century, the region has lost about 13% of its population (Figure 1).

Figure 1
Dynamics of the population of the Altai region in 1995-2017, thousand people

Source: http://akstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/akstat/ru/statistics/altayRegionStat/ population/

According to the moderate forecast on the official website of the Office of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic (http://akstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/akstat/ru/statistics/altayRegionStat/ population/), the region's population will continue to decline, reaching 2,085 thousand people by 2036.

Figure 2 shows the distribution of the Altai region’s population in 2013-2017 by sex and age.

Figure 2
The distribution of the Altai region’s population in 2013-2017 by sex and age, thousand people

Source: (Basic indicators of social and economic, 2017)

As we can see from Figure 2 in the period from 2013, the urban and rural population of the Altai region decreased by 2% and 6.2%, respectively.  In the studies of V. Perevedentsev, published in the late 1980s, there were three main streams from village to town, which were traditional for Soviet youth: 15-16 years old – after the end of incomplete secondary school; 17-18 years old - after high school; 20-21 years old – after service in the army (Perevedentsev, 1990). Now the age of the greatest migration activity is confined, rather, to the age of obtaining professional education.

This is due to the fact that young people aged 15-19 years (after graduation from the 9th grade and 10-11 grades of the school) leave the Altai region to study and work mainly in the Novosibirsk, Kemerovo and Tyumen regions, because the standard of living in these regions is much higher than in the Altai region (Figure 3 and Figure 4).

As a rule, the migration of young people is voluntary. Voluntary migration assumes that a person freely and in accordance with their desires and goals moves from one region or country to another territory. According to expert estimates, up to 43% of schoolchildren, 29% of college students, 32% of university students and about 37% of working youth have a target for interregional migration (http://www.altai.aif.ru/dontknows/1241613). Migration of young people is not their spontaneous decision, attitudes towards leaving for study are formed long before the end of school. Families are ready to provide weighty support to young people when migrating to large cities. Often, the direction of departure for study is chosen "with an eye" for the subsequent departure of the whole family (Mkrtchyan, 2017).

Source: (Basic indicators of social and economic, 2017)

17.1% of the region's population has an average per capita income below the subsistence level. Low income level does not allow parents to teach their children in colleges and universities of the Altai region on a commercial basis, where the maximum average price of 1 year of education for the academic year 2017-2018 is: college - 42.0-54.0 thousand rubles; university - 95.0-105.0 thousand rubles.

The technical areas of vocational education in the Altai State Technical University have a sufficient number of budget places (more than 3 thousand), but at the end of it, the problem of employment in the province arises before graduates, as large and medium-sized industrial enterprises work in anticipation of the state defense order and vacancies Hardly ever.

Studying the youth migration, the scientists of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation determined that the willingness of young people to move to another place varies depending on the region of residence, which most likely indirectly characterizes the current situation in this or that regional labor market (Youth employment, 2018). Graduates of colleges and universities in Altai region do not have jobs at all, the most popular professions are sales managers and bank specialists (Table 1).

Table 1
Absolute unemployment rates in the Altai Territory in 2013-2017, thousands of people

Source: (Basic indicators of social and economic, 2017)

A direct consequence of this dynamic of migration processes is a reduction in the number of able-bodied population and an increase in the demographic burden, which is significantly higher than the average for Russia (Table 2).

Table 2
Indicators of demographic burden in the Altai Territory and Russia in 2010-2016

Source: (Regions of Russia, 2017)

The indirect losses of uncompensated interregional migration in the region are related to the limitation of the reproduction potential of the Altai region’s population in the future due to the reduction in the number of representatives of younger reproductive ages due to their high migration activity.

As a result of interregional migration loss, the economy of the region is deprived of skilled young people who are able to adapt quickly to modern realities and have the skills to use new sources of information.

At present, in many companies, the problem of providing workers and supervisors with mid-level management is exacerbated in the region. The average age of specialists employed in industrial and processing enterprises has increased by more than 10 years and has approached retirement age (more than 45 years). Only 16-18% of graduates of universities and colleges work in their specialty in these industries, the rest are in search of (as they think) the best work. Often the leaders of such enterprises are people without the necessary professional training, which is less interested in the policy of promoting their young cadres and the prospect of their development.

The current situation with the preparation and consolidation of young personnel is due to a number of problems, both state and corporate. Among the main problems are:

(i) a decrease in the prestige of engineering and technical areas due to the low material and social reputation of industry. The training of engineers is going through a certain crisis period (the decline in the competition for higher education in engineering specialties, the reduction in the number of students in the institute of advanced training for an order), the overcoming of which has only recently been outlined;

(ii) because of the ineffectiveness of the cadre system, so-called "internal emigration" is growing, when young engineers are unwilling to pursue their profession and go to other areas of activity (sales managers in shopping centers);

(iii) in the majority of business structures there is no system and programs of continuous firm training of managers-professionals for middle and senior management, able to effectively manage under the conditions of market economy the development of these structures in their knowledge, skills and worldview;

(iv) strengthening of links between the system of higher professional education and production;

(v) provision of conditions for effective internship of students and their subsequent employment;

(vi) creation of infrastructure for higher, secondary technical and postgraduate education.

Taking into account the current situation in the province on the retirement of young people (aged 15-19, 19-25), it is urgent to strengthen the consistent implementation of radical economic reform to create small enterprises with new jobs and expand the range of agro-industrial processing. The complexity of the tasks facing the regions requires a purposeful education of initiative, independence, a keen interest in the new among young people. Without this, it is impossible to take new frontiers for the development of the region's economy.

Starting in 2018, all economic methods should motivate young people to act on the principle of "where they were born, where they came in handy" and found application at all levels of economic development of the country's regions. In this connection, the correct combination of the functions of various links within the framework of an integrated system of management and management is of no small importance (Strategy of social and economic development, 2012). But this problem on the suspension of migration of young people is still not being solved consistently.

The youth labor market is a special socio-demographic segment of the Russian economy, subject to its own laws, which must be taken into account in employment policy.

Young people are characterized by instability of life attitudes, lack of work experience and work experience and, as a consequence, relatively low professional status. At the same time, unlike other socially vulnerable groups (disabled people, women), young people are the most promising category of labor. Still completely not formed as a subject of labor activity, it is most susceptible to all changes, has the ability to constantly change labor functions, huge opportunities for professional growth, the longest period of the forthcoming labor activity.

Employment issues are extremely important for young people; on the other hand, it is not everyone who succeeds in realizing their needs in the professional sphere. To avoid migrations of young people related to employment problems, employers need to reduce the requirements for candidates, make competent selection and recruitment, and not be afraid to invest in their training. Also, the more the employer pays attention to the training of his candidate, the more this candidate will strive to obtain this position, i.e. the employee will have an incentive.

A lot of work is needed to link all the links of the economic mechanism, including the training of young professionals who must direct their knowledge and professional skills to accelerate the social and economic development of the region, which includes:

ensuring a dynamic, proportional and balanced growth of the region's economy. In the implementation of this function, the role of young cadres is increasing, which should become the mainstay in the development of industrial production and agriculture;

ensuring the direct dependence of the costs of production and social development, as well as the size of labor remuneration for workers from the gross income earned by labor collectives;

the distribution and redistribution of the national income, as well as the gross income (profit) of enterprises to ensure their development and payment of labor by workers, as well as the nation-wide requirements for the formation of public consumption funds and accumulation;

development and strengthening of economic ties between industrial enterprises, branches and regions of the country with observance of equivalence in the exchange of goods.

The predominance of command and administrative methods of leadership over a long period negatively affected the qualifications of managers, and many of them disaccustomed to take responsibility for the decisions made. This could not but affect the level of economic thinking of economic and managerial personnel. When recruiting personnel, their theoretical training and ability to work were not always taken into account. Often, they selected "convenient" workers. To make informed decisions in the conditions of democratization of management, it is required to be able to think analytically, comprehensively weigh the ways of achieving final results, choose from them the best ones that meet the interests of society and the work collective. For this it is necessary to master well the science of management, selection and training of cadres. Improvement of the system of training and retraining of economic personnel, search and promotion of talented, gifted young people to leadership positions has become a priority task.

The high level of professional training of young professionals should be based on mastering them during the training of fundamental, general engineering cycles of disciplines in their modern understanding, combined with research and practical training systems.
Existing problems of higher education should be resolved on the basis of agreements between institutions and enterprises, providing for the implementation of a joint educational and scientific-practical set of activities.

Thus, a perfect system of education should teach a graduate of a college or university in the process of practical activity to identify problems, to study the ways of their independent resolution, to develop long-term development tasks. Moreover, in order to be competent in decision-making, one must know not only the technology of production, but also the ways of establishing relationships in the system of interaction of people.

The reported research was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the government of the Altai region, grant № 18-410-220015

BASIC INDICATORS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALTAI REGION 2005-2016: PASSPORT / Office of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic. Barnaul, 2017.

MKRTCHYAN, Nikita V. The youth migration from small towns in Russia. Monitoring of public opinion,  2017, no. 1 (137). Retrieved from: https://wciom.ru/fileadmin/file/monitoring/2017/137/2017_137_15_Mkrtchan.pdf

PEREVEDENTSEV V.I. Youth and socio-demographic problems of the USSR. M .: Nauka, 1990.

REGIONS OF RUSSIA. Socio-economic indicators. 2017. / Rosstat. M., 2017.

STRATEGY OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALTAI REGION FOR THE PERIOD UNTIL 2025 (prepared by the Main Administration of Economics and Investment of the Altai region) / Ed. M.P. Shchetinin. Barnaul: Corvus, 2012.

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT. Is the youth willing to change their place of residence
for the sake of good work? (January-December 2017) / Ed. T.L. Klyachko. M.,
Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
under the President of the Russian Federation, 2018. Retrieved from: https://docplayer.ru/73353980-Institut-prikladnyh-ekonomicheskih-issledovaniy-centr-ekonomiki-nepreryvnogo-obrazovaniya.html

1. Altai State University. Department of Personnel Management and Socio-Economic Relations. Barnaul, Russia. E-mail: barnaulhome@mail.ru

2. Altai State University. Department of Finance and Credit. Barnaul, Russia. E-mail: stroiteleva_ev@mail.ru