The demographic and economic framework of circular migration in Belarus

Abstract

Defining and thus measuring circular migration is a difficult task. Its definition is far from clear either at an academic or at the political level. In a comprehensive article Newland (2009) tries to identify all definitional issues by summarizing four dimensions which have been used to approach circular migration schemes: 1. spatial, which involves both the origin and the destination country; 2. temporal, which includes both short and long term movements; 3. iterative, including more than one cycle; and 4. developmental, describing a win-win-win process implying benefits for the country of origin, the country of destination and the migrant himself. When trying to measure this phenomenon, Belarus faces specific challenges as, at the time of writing, neither comprehensive statistics nor ad hoc surveys capture one specific trait of circularity, namely its repetitiveness.