Chinese migration to the customs union countries and regional security

In the last few years, migration, as a phenomenon of the globalizing world, has become more active and much more prominent in all spheres of social life. It has gained even more prominence in the context of the geopolitical changes to become a global phenomenon. This is true of labor migration from China to the countries of the Customs Union, unfolding in the context of the global financial and economic crisis. Chinese migration can be described as one of the important factors that affect the social, economic and, probably, demographic development of these countries in the long-term perspective. Here we have proceeded from the fact that the demographic situation and main migration processes are the important elements of everyday life and politics of contemporary China, the impact of which is not limited to China, the development of its neighbors being affected as well.1 In the future, these processes will become some of the factors to be considered in the relationship between China and its closest neighbors. Today, the steady growth of Chinese uncontrolled migration is responsible for the worsening standards of living in the host countries; it exacerbates the problems created by the equally steady growth of protest sentiments among the local population. To downplay the negative effects of Chinese migration and the protest sentiments it stirs up, China and Kazakhstan, fully aware of mutual synergy of their economics and mainly identical interests in the world, adopted a joint Strategy of Cooperation for the 21st Century that outlined the main directions of their strategic partnership. It was for the first time that the top officials discussed the problem of Chinese workforce illegally brought into Kazakhstan by Chinese oil and gas companies, working in the Aktobe Region in Western Kazakhstan, and the mass protests stirred up by these practices.Today, migration can be described as one of the main factors that directly affect economy, culture, nationalities policy, ethnic and international relations. Migration can no longer be described as a socioeconomic phenomenon-it is gradually acquiring political dimensions. This means that to maintain national and regional security, the interconnections between the political processes and migration, and the nature and directions of their interaction should be carefully studied and understood. © 2017, CA and CC Press AB. All rights reserved.