Practices and drivers of the migration behavior of rural youth in the Siberian agricultural region

The article deals with the problems of mass migration of young people from the rural areas on the example of Altai Krai as the largest agricultural region in Siberia. Various assessments of these processes are identified, and the necessity of their regulation due to emerging risks and threats at the national level is justified. The methodological features of the study include a comprehensive approach to the measurement of the social status and activities of rural youth on the basis of a differentiated and comparative analysis of their changes, as well as the assessment of impact of rural social regulators and state policy on youth migration. The results are based on a number of regional sociological studies and statistics. The characteristics of migration processes in Russia and their specificity in Altai Krai since the early 1990s are given. It is concluded that the long-term migration decline of the population in the region can lead to the depopulation of the rural areas and the loss of social control over them, to the deterioration of age and educational structures of the population, as well as to the reduction of demographic resources for sustainable regional development. The dynamics of actual and potential migration of rural youth is described. Since the beginning of the latest crisis, there has been an increase in potential migration. In 2017 more than half of the young people planned to leave the rural areas. The groups of young people with higher migration potential are identified. The practices of the migration behavior of rural youth and their consequences are considered. Among the latter are the following: almost one and a half times reduction in the number of rural youth, hindered reproduction of population and labor resources in peripheral areas and small villages, the aggravation of the lack of skilled workers. It is shown that the scale of pendulum and seasonal migrations has increased significantly due to the development of the road transport network, Internet and mobile communication. The positive results of the impact of re-emigration on the improvement of the educational structure and the structure of employment of rural youth are revealed. Along with traditional drivers and barriers of rural youth migration, new ones are considered. The reasons of strengthening of influence of family-related networks as catalysts of migration are revealed. The modern practices and effects of rural business and public policy on the reduction of youth migration are shown. The slow reaction to the degradation in the rural social development and the lack of attention to the living conditions of the youth in villages are highlighted among the defects of the state policy. The authors proposed ways of increasing the efficiency of the state policy to reduce the migration of rural youth, taking into account the priority of the spatial development of rural areas and the influence of social regulators.

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