RUSSIA'S IMMIGRATION DILEMMA ( NO BILINGUAL/MULTI-LANGUAGE EDUCATION/VOTING HERE )

RIA Novosti ^ | 20 Jan 2005 | Olga Sobolevskaya

[Robert Drobot]

Russia is increasingly interested in immigrants coming to the country. From 2006, the number of economically active Russians will start declining sharply and by 2050 might decrease by 45% compared with 2000.

An influx of immigrants might compensate for demographic and economic losses. Russia has not yet used this possibility to full extent. According to Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya, the chief of the Laboratory for Migration at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Economic Forecasting, "Any improvement in living standards is impossible without an increase in the economically active population." Ukraine and Kazakhstan are two former Soviet republics that have decided to liberalize their immigration policies. Russia, though, "in the last 15 years has squandered its chances of becoming 'the America of the 21st century' and attract twice as many labor resources," Ms. Zayonchkovskaya underlines. Meanwhile, a third of enterprises in Russia - a country with a growing economy - are in desperate need of personnel.

[Robert Drobot]

"Russia must learn to "digest" the multi-ethnic inflow and attempt to integrate as many migrants to society as possible, believes Anatoly Vishnevsky, the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Center for Demography and Human Ecology. "The 'aliens' - newcomers from foreign cultures - must become 'natives,'" he says. In other words, the "guests" must be helped to integrate in Russian society, as this is both Russia's and their own interests."

Seems the Ruskies aren't into the PC diversity poison that goes under the label of 'bilingual' education.

In point of fact, I don't know of a single country in the world, that promotes communities of multilingual 'diversity' AND multi-language voting ballots, other than the united States.

[peyton randolph]

I don't know of a single country in the world, that promotes communities of multilingual 'diversity' AND multi-language voting ballots, other than the united States.

Switzerland and Canada come to mind. Not that I'm recommending we follow their lead.

[xJones]

Ukraine and Kazakhstan are two former Soviet republics that have decided to liberalize their immigration policies.

In the last 2 or 3 years I've meet numerous Ukrainian immigrants here in north Texas and also in California. This is fine because they're here legally and are good workers. But they are usually in their 20s to 30s, fairly youngish, and immigrating at a time when Ukraine can't afford to be losing them. And these are not Jewish Ukrainians escaping from any persecution, these are usually Catholic Ukrainians.

[Ben Ficklin]

With all due respect, I think you are missing the significant issues in this article.