Country report : Armenia

Research for this EUDO Citizenship Observatory Country Report has been supported by the British Academy Research Project CITMODES, directed by the University of Edinburgh and the European University Institute. The financial support from this project is gratefully acknowledged.Revised version: 2013/1

State-building and nation-making in the former Soviet republics Transformation and institutionalization of citizenship, 1990-2005

This dissertation is written in a three journal-length article format. I examine the external and internal factors that shaped nation-state building of new and young fifteen former Soviet republics, and determined what citizenship and naturalization legislation the republics adopted to construct a new nation, state and a polity since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In manuscript-1 I synthesize two opposing theoretical perspectives-- World Society theory (addressing external pressures from the world culture) and Nationhood (addressing nationalism, ethno-demographic dynamics and the national identity). I divide fifteen post-Soviet republics into three theoretically distinct groups to examine the variation in the extent to which nationhood is incorporated and strengthened. I argue that in the post-World War II era the universally empowering nature of human rights scripts has provided new opportunities for states to do nation-building without defying world dominant political culture. To legitimate their actions, young states use not primordialism, but human rights scripts to reinforce and strengthen the ethnic nation that the state is named after and represents. "Tamed" versions of nationhood are emerging, yet citizenship policies still reinforce the national identity of the nation that gave the name to the state. Manuscript-2 is a methodological piece on migration--a variable that can be both a cause and an effect of citizenship regimes of the state. There is consensus among researchers that international migration data are undercounted in fifteen post-Soviet republics. I compare and investigate various methods of international migration estimation and argue that population censuses and household surveys provide superior quality of data on migration than the immigration-by-origin method. Manuscript-3 focuses on conditions of diffusion of state practices and policies among social adopters. The manuscript explains the mechanism of diffusion of policies (globally and locally) that determined the citizenship regimes adopted by Baltic republics when the USSR collapsed in 1991. The manuscript suggests a synthesis materialist (coercive) and ideational (scripted and learned) explanations of diffusion-- to suggest a model where these competing mechanisms of diffusion intersect rather than occur in isolation or in opposition

Emigration-diaspora policy nexus in migration policies of the EU Eastern Partnership countries and in Russia

CARIM-East: Creating an Observatory of Migration East of EuropeProvoked by more frequent discussions about the "emigration-diaspora" nexus among the researchers on international development, this policy brief, written based on the explanatory notes submitted by country-experts of CARIM-East project, explores the emigration-diaspora issues in migration policies of post-Soviet states in the EU neighborhood. As the examination of CARIM-East country experts reveals, the primary focus of emigration policies of post-Soviet states remains linked to labour migration and focuses on the prevention of emigration (and return of emigrated co-nationals), although migration policies of post-Soviet states also emphasize the need for integrating their labour-force into the international labour market. Post-Soviet governments offer various stimuli to attract their former residents to return to homeland, ranging from advocacy campaigns on business development to matching financial investments from remittances to providing grants to those trained abroad. Despite the conceptual ambiguity stemming from including labour migrants into diasporas, or as the development community has referred to -- "migrant diasporas", the policy documents of post-Soviet states use the term diasporas to refer to both permanently emigrated former citizens, and to current citizens living abroad (regardless of length of residency abroad). However, a more systematic examination is needed to understand whether and in which aspects the focus of migration policies of post-Soviet is different or overlaps for labour migrants abroad vs. diasporas.CARIM-East is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union

Migrant support measures from and employment and skills perspective (MISMES) : methodological note for the country studies

Migrant Support Measures from an Employment and Skills Perspective (MISMES)This methodological note has been developed within the project ‘Migrant Support Measures from an Employment and Skills Perspective’ (MISMES). It is part of a series of reports presenting the main findings of the MISMES project – namely, a worldwide inventory of migrant support measures implemented in sending countries to facilitate labour mobility and increase the developmental effect of migration, and five in-depth studies in the countries which concluded mobility partnerships with the European Union (EU): Armenia, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Morocco, and Tunisia. For the purpose of these reports, MISMES are defined as specific policy interventions – pre, during and post migration – aimed at improving the labour market integration of migrant workers or the matching of their skills. This methodological note aims to provide a common template and guidelines for the implementation of MISMES country case studies. The ultimate objective of these studies is to generate information not only to draw policy conclusions at national level, but also to allow for a systematic comparison of similar MISMES across countries. In other words, our intention is to draw more general conclusions about the performance of different MISMES models in different migration contexts and to provide evidence-based contribution to an informed policy dialogue on migration in the framework of the mobility partnerships between the EU and partner countries

Circular Migration in Eastern Partnership Countries. An overview

English version of CARIM-East RR2012/35CARIM-East: Creating an Observatory of Migration East of EuropeCARIM-East is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union

Migration rhetoric in political party programs : comparative review of case-studies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine

CARIM-East: Creating an Observatory of Migration East of EuropeThis paper is a comparative review of country analyses of migration rhetoric in political party programs of seven post-Soviet states --Russia, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia in the South Caucasus, and Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine in the Eastern Europe. All six post-Soviet states in the South Caucasus and in the Eastern Europe are members of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative of the European Union since 2009.CARIM-East is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union

Migrant support measures from and employment and skills perspective (MISMES) : global inventory with a focus on countries of origin

Migrant Support Measures from an Employment and Skills Perspective (MISMES)This report is the European Training Foundation’s (ETF) latest contribution to an informed policy dialogue on legal and circular migration. It aims to provide evidence-based, policy-oriented inputs to European Neighbourhood countries from an employment and skills perspective. To this end, a dual focus is offered: a global focus to review the migrant support measures implemented worldwide from an employment and skills perspective; and a country focus to take stock and inform policy decisions in that field in the framework of the European Union (EU) Mobility Partnerships with these Neighbourhood countries. The study was coordinated by the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute (EUI) under the supervision of the ETF. This report presents the main findings of a global analytical inventory of migrant support measures implemented in countries of origin from an employment and skills perspective (MISMES). These measures were introduced to facilitate labour mobility and increase the developmental effect of migration in sending countries. This is the first attempt to compile, classify and assess these measures in terms of cost effectiveness and the outcomes of the migration process. Readers can also find the MISMES methodological note (ETF, 2015a), and five additional country studies on the same topic – Armenia, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova1, Morocco and Tunisia – all countries which concluded Mobility Partnerships with the EU (ETF, 2015b-f). The report is structured around four phases of migration (pre-migration, during-migration, postmigration and multi-dimensional), and makes a compilation, classification and preliminary assessment of 11 MISMES models identified. An Excel file complementing the report and the country studies with a number of examples on each of the MISMES models is available on the web