Attractiveness of Centers and Secondary Cities of Regions for Internal Migrants in Russia

Abstract

Abstract—The article examines the intensity of intraregional and interregional net-migration of the populations of centers and secondary (in terms of population) cities of 74 Russian regions for 2012–2016. The informational basis of the study is a database of municipality indicators for the corresponding years. The low city saturation of the Russian space should logically lead to the fact that in intraregional migration, secondary cities, as important centers of social and economic life, should be attractive for migration, i.e., have a positive net migration rate. In fact, this is observed in 42 regions. In the remainder, the final balance of intraregional migration in secondary cities is negative. Migration can also be considered an indicator of the well-being of secondary cities both in terms of availability of their own sustainable hinterland and socioeconomically. Regional centers are attractive for intraregional migrants almost everywhere. This uniformity results from the concentration of financial and other flows and authority in the capital cities of regions and, regardless of the socioeconomic situation, better quality of life in regional centers compared to other municipalities in their regions. The interregional migration indicators are a more ambiguous characteristics: from the viewpoint of the balance considered in the article, not only regional secondary cities, but also many regional centers, are unattractive for interregional migrants. Limited demographic resources and the presence of two powerful centers of migration attraction at the country level (Moscow and St. Petersburg) leave no opportunities for migration increase owing to interregional migrants to most regional centers.