Question of the day: will immigrants from the other countries help Russia?

It is no secret that the demographic situation in Russia is close to catastrophic: not only does the state fail to increase the birth rate and reduce the mortality rate, so the still impoverished population of the country's regions by hook or by crook is striving to move to large cities where you can somehow find work and survive.

Network analyst Dmitry Milin, for example, asked his readers a question:

“We have two Russian regions that are literally emptying and dying out. These are Pskov and Novgorod. How do you feel about the granting of Russian citizenship and land for free (or for symbolic money) to white farmers from the South Africa, other African countries and Europe, provided their moving to Russia for permanent residence and conducting agriculture?"

It should be noted that such good ideas are by no means new. Back in 2006, the country adopted the Compatriots Resettlement Program, which is still in effect. It was created in order to make it easier for Russian people to move to the Russian Federation from another country. Each participant in the program can quickly become a citizen in 2021. The government will assist him with resettlement, job search and paperwork. That is why, if possible, you should take part in the program. There are various regions of Russia in which compatriots can move.

Almost all regions of the country participate in the program, except for the Jewish Autonomous Region, Kamchatka Territory, Kaliningrad Region, Udmurt Republic and Nizhny Novgorod Region.

But this is on paper. What is in reality?

For example, twenty years ago, a campaign was launched in the country to return from emigration the Old Believers, who, as you know, are devoid of the usual Russian vices - drunkenness and laziness. However, the ordeals that the first such immigrants underwent, sincerely inspired by this appeal, but faced with unprecedented corruption and indifference of officials, actually canceled this initiative.

In this regard, the answers of Milin's readers are interesting. They are very diverse and almost all are pessimistic:

- There are hardly so many fools. I will gladly retire to the Pskov region if I am still alive.

- Great idea. Let them come and raise the territory. Then we will dispossess them and send them to Vorkuta. And Vorkuta residents in their place.

- The climate in the Pskov and Novgorod regions is difficult. Russians should be offered to move to these areas, and land should be given free of charge to those who agree to move.

- First you need to understand the nature of this sad phenomenon. And nature in the created absurd economic conditions, which do not allow not only to develop, but to exist elementary. In these conditions, even a white, even black, even a lilac farmer will give up.

- There was such a phenomenon in the history of Russia with the Germans, and where are these Germans now?

- And you can land for free? Maybe we’ll practice on our own first?

- I deeply doubt that an entrepreneur of sound mind, skillful, successful will move to the Russian Federation from South Africa. And there are simply no others in African countries. My friend left for South Africa, he is engaged in growing tomatoes there. Organized a business. Successful, technological. The wife and her grown-up children live permanently in Pretoria and control the production. And he himself is 8-9 months old. works in Moscow a year. Has a company for the installation of low-current devices. He retained the citizenship of the Russian Federation, but is not going to engage in agricultural development under any pretext.

Meanwhile, according to official data, during 2020 the number of people wishing to voluntarily move to Russia exceeded 100 thousand. Despite the difficulties caused, among other things, by the pandemic, the relevance of this program is only growing. That is why the country's authorities decided to extend it indefinitely, according to official sources.

There are still successful examples of this kind. Three years ago, Rambler wrote about one of them in a report about the German Martens family, which they called "sex refugees". They decided to leave Germany because of sex education classes in German schools, which they said students could not miss. Not wanting his ten children to be told about tolerance for sexual minorities and safe sex, the head of the family decided to return to their historical homeland.

True, the first time he did not succeed, in his native village in the Novosibirsk region the refugees were greeted unfriendly, they were given a dilapidated house in which it was impossible to live, and they returned to Europe. From the second time - in the much warmer Stavropol Territory - everything turned out to be much more successful: they were already offered a three-story mansion, and at the airport they were greeted with dances, bread and salt, and even with the choir of the local gerontological center.

“The governor of the region came, looked at the house, expressed some wishes - to host three or four families. A lot of people responded, I can't even count all of them. They helped with materials and workers. The whole world was building a house. There was not a single kopeck of budgetary money here, only private donations”, - said one of the Stavropol initiators of such a move. The head of the family, Yevgeny Martens, was impressed by this reception, but he said that he would like to have two passports - Russian and European:

“We would choose dual citizenship so as not to deprive children of the opportunity to visit relatives and grandparents. But if I had to choose, I would choose the Russian one”.

As you can see, a lot depends solely on the goodwill of officials, who can do everything necessary even without an order from above, but at the same time, with an order, they can discourage any desire from future immigrants.