YEREVAN. - Overall number of migrants from Armenia to Europe makes around 150 thousand people, stated the participants of conference on European Integration held by International Centre for Human Development in Yerevan.

Last year 1138 Armenian citizens were granted residence permits in France, 106 people in the Netherlands, 227 - in Sweden. At the same time in 2010, 611 citizens of Armenia appealed to the authorities of the Netherlands for political asylum. A total of 275 citizens of Armenia made a similar request to the authorities of Austria, 986 - to the authorities of Belgium.

About 65 percent of labor migrants account for the Russian Federation, 10 percent for the European countries. Seventy percent of migrants in Russia are engaged in the construction sector, 10 percent - in trade. The number of seasonal workers is 60 - 80 thousand people.

During the first 9 months of 2011 individual transfers to Armenia made $1 billion 92 million, which exceeds last year’s indicator by 23 percent.