Yamal is the only region of the Arctic with growing population

An anthropologist from the European University at Saint Petersburg Yelena Lyarskaya studies reasons of permanent growth of population in Yamal, as the press-service of the governor of Yamal informs.

The researches are being conducted within the project "The children of the 90-s in the modern Russian Arctic: assessment of the present and the desired future". The researchers from Saint Petersburg travel around the whole north of the country from the Kola Peninsula to Kamchatka in order to understand, why young people choose the Arctic for life or, on the contrary, strive to leave this territory. The scientists are interested in prospects that inhabitants of the Polar Regions see for themselves and their children. Now assistant professor of the department of anthropology, candidate of historical sciences Yelena Lyarskaya is working in Salekhard together with young employees of the scientific center for study of the Arctic. She will visit the settlements Yar-Salye, Salemal and Panayevsk. According to her words, Yamal much differs from other regions of the Far North. In spite of efforts of the government, departure of population is observed almost on all territories of the Arctic. And only in Yamal increase of population both natural and owing to migration is continued every year. She does not think that it happens because of oil and gas extraction, there are some other factors, which attract people to the North, and they stay to live here. The scientists intend to find these factors and to evaluate them, as Yelena Lyarskaya notes.