Professor (Almaty,
Kazakhstan)
Demographic safety is a component of all security
system. In multiethnic state demographic safety can be presented as a component
of social security. There is also a need to identify the meaning and
demographic security as an independent question, standing in one line with the
environmental, economic, social, political, informational, legal spheres of
human life, society and the state. At the same time, the demographic safety is
an element of systems of all levels of security, identifying all known current
human activities. A man and a society mutually determine qualitative and
quantitative characteristics of existence and health of each other. They are
the building blocks of the state as a system. They are interrelated and
interdependent elements of a system.
World community is concerned about the
demographic situation in the world. In this regard, the United Nations at the
Millennium formulated 13 global problems, where the demographic problem takes
its third place after the problems of war and peace, and environmental issues.
Thus, secure and sustainable economic
development of any country directly depends on the dynamics of demographic
processes, as the population of the country is the goal, and the factor of
development. Thereby, the strategy "Kazakhstan-2030" states that "the
leading priorities of national security must be nominated by a strong
demographic and migration policy" (1).
Since gaining its independence in 1991, the
Republic begins transformation processes and the expansion of possible return
of certain ethnic groups into the homeland. In Kazakhstan, as in many other
countries of the CIS, in quantity and its structure, the population has changed
dramatically.
Transitional crisis of the 1990s all over
the former Soviet territory directly affected the level of reproduction. During
the first years of sovereignty, in solving problems of demography Kazakhstan
used basic legal norms and trends of population policy, inherited from the
Soviet Union. But in the process of shifting to a market economy and creating
new approaches of social policy, it required immediate re-evaluation of the
existing system of rules connected with the role and place of the state
demographic policy: in the level of family, social protection system of
motherhood and childhood. Later they started to work out methods and principles
of demographic policy, in implementing resource maintenance and regionalization
with bearing features of demographic, economic and socio-cultural development
of independent Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan Agency for Migration and Demography
drafted the concept of the state population and migration policy, which was
approved by Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan as of August 17, 2000 ¹
1272 and September 5, 2000 ¹ 1346.
The concept of state population and
migration policy - it is the first document formulated by the government. The
proposed concept - is the ideology of the demographic development, disclosing
the meaning of the nature and importance of demographic processes and the
unified national population policy formulation. The program’ objective was the
elaboration and implementing integrated solutions to overcome negative trends
in demographic processes of the Republic of Kazakhstan and finally to get an
increase in population. It was also aimed to stabilize the fertility and
provide its growth, mortality reduction, public health support, and family
strengthening; to reduce migration negative balance, to grow up living
standards.
To date, the measures taken by the
Government connected to the country's demographic development resulted to
achieving stabilization and slight growth in the birth rate, reduce mortality
and increase life expectancy, reduce the negative migration balance. Recent
years set preconditions for sustainable growth in population.
According to the results of the 2009
census the total population of the country was 16,004.8 thousand people, and
the share of Kazakhs in the population was 63.1% (or 10.1 million people.) (1).
In total, the census recorded a rising
trend in the people of Kazakhstan, which is a change comparing with the fall of
2000. This is resulted by the decrease of European ethnic groups emigration,
increase of the growth rate of Kazakhs and reduce of Russian and German decline
rate.
The population of Kazakhstan is changing
through migration growth. This was mainly the result of an active policy of
repatriation repatriates - Kazakhs living in the CIS and other foreign
countries.
Currently, the National Agency of RK for
Migration and Demography worked out the Program to increase the population in
2015 to 20 million. To achieve this target in near future, there are two
options - natural increase and immigration. We can say that as for now, neither
of two options does work effectively.
However, despite all measures taken by the
state, the threats to our demographic security are, and some of them should be
pointed out: a dramatic environmental degradation, natural disasters and other
emergency situations of natural and man-made disasters, epidemics and
epizootics, reduced fertility, increased mortality, uncontrolled migrations,
illegal migration and cross-border conflicts, terrorism, extremism, drug
trafficking, human trafficking, etc.
In the context of the integration processes
development, more openness of Kazakhstan in general and economics in
particular, especially with the Republic’ entering into the Customs Union,
becoming a Eurasian economic space, as well as the forthcoming accession of the
WTO, it is expected that the world's population and migration processes and
trends will have a direct impact on the demographic situation in Kazakhstan.
References:
1.
http: \ \ www. start. Website kz Kazakhstan Agency for Statistics.