MIGRATION HINTERLANDS OF CITIES IN THE ALTAI KRAI

Abstract

The study of intraregional migration in Russia is complicated by short time series and a limited set of published data, particularly at the municipal level. The publicly available data allow only general evaluation of migration parameters, e. g. the migration turnover, the net migration features, etc. More complete data, for example, on movements between municipalities, could be obtained from the regional statistical offices on special requests. Based on such data on intraregional migration in the Altai Krai in 2014-2018, the hinterlands of the urban okrugs were identified, and some characteristics of those hinterlands were revealed.The migration turnover with ten urban okrugs of the region was calculated for urban and rural settlements of the Altai Krai. A settlement was attributed to the hinterland of a particular urban okrug basing on the maxi-mum migration turnover with it. The hinterlands were delimited in two ways, i.e. with and without considering the capital city of Barnaul. By this we evaluated how the exclusion of migration to/from the regional capital, which dominates the system of intraregional migration links, affects the migration preferences of settlement residents.The results of the study showed that the Barnaul hinterland includes more than half of the Krai’s territory with approximately 60% of the region’s population. The hinterlands of other cities are proportional to the population of their centers and are also influenced by their location in relation to the regional capital. Without considering Barnaul, several cities, such as Rubtsovsk and Slavgorod considerably expand their influence, while the hinterland of Biysk, the second-largest city in the region, changed only slightly. Despite the importance of the size of cities, the mutual disposition of subcenters and their location in relation to the regional center play a critical role in the intraregional migration. The study gives an idea of principal directions of inter-settlement migration in the Altai Krai.