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“According to the official data of State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan annual migration balance is stably positive. However, if we analyze the migration flows from countries neighboring Azerbaijan then we can see that according to official data tens of thousands of people are leaving this country for permanent residence in abroad each year,” stated expert of Geopolitics of the South Caucasus, PhD in Political Science Angela Elibegova in an interview given to Analitika.at.ua.

The expert noted in particular:

“Back in 2011, it was stated that, after the citizens of Ukraine and Uzbekistan, the Azerbaijanis in Russia (500 thousand people per year) by the number of labor migrants have been on the third place. Moreover, in recent years, the negative migration balance of the "fast growing" Azerbaijan together with Russia is increasing; it has increased for 17 times during 7 years and by 36% during 2011. According to the Chairman of State Committee of Azerbaijan Republic on Work with Diaspora Nazim Ibrahimov 2.5 million of Azerbaijanis live in Russia.
According to the immigration service records of Turkey 578, 6 thousand Azerbaijanis entered the country in 2011, and left 565.4 citizens. Thus, for the last year, 13 thousand Azerbaijanis settled there down, most of them from Nakhijevan. Again, according to the official data of the Turkish side, about 150 thousand people, since 1997, have left the autonomous region for Turkey for permanent residence.

At the same time there is a considerable migration of Azerbaijanis to Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the EU and the U.S. So, if a detailed analysis of migration flows singly for each country is carried out then the figure will grow over 100 thousand.

Azerbaijani officials often state about opening of "millions of jobs" in the country since 2003. However, they never state how many workplaces have been closed during the same period. Then, there is no specific list of companies and areas where it is indicated that these jobs are "successfully created." Besides, President Aliyev likes speaking about the record pace of poverty reduction - five times within seven years. In the same time, the parameters by which Azerbaijani government defines poverty rate are extremely doubtful. If we compare data of Azerbaijan with the poorest EU member states, for example, then most of the population of Azerbaijan will cross the poverty threshold.

Judge for yourself, the GDP growth was only 0.1% in 2011 oil production was declined by 10%. During a year the number of Azerbaijani citizens, who applied for asylum in developed countries, grew by 18%. As Arif Veliyev, the chairman of the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan stated, in the middle class of the country are include those who have an income of 150-190 dollars and that make the 70% of the population. According to the studies of the American Sociological Center Gallup only 7% of the population of Azerbaijan is satisfied with life.

700 thousand people in Azerbaijan receive a targeted social assistance, they, according to the state agencies of Azerbaijan, live below the poverty threshold. Moreover, about 35% of the employable population does not have a job or does not want to work. According to the data of State Social Protection Fund, only 2 million of employable population (40%) works in Azerbaijan, of which about 1 million are government employees. That is to say, if 60% of the population in Azerbaijan does not work, then the official figures about 7% of the poverty threshold do not correspond to reality, as well as the data on opening another 1 million workplaces, because, it comes out that, before 2003 no one was worked in Azerbaijan, except employees of budget based institutions. Moreover, in Azerbaijan there are 4.5% of people with disabilities recorded officially, plus 6% of officially unemployed, plus retirees, students and other groups at risk, it becomes obvious that the official figures are not just under-reported, they blatantly lie. And they do not lie to others, but to the same citizens of Azerbaijan, every second of who, according to the studies of Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD), is a debtor.”