Democratization: Migration/Freedom of Movement tems. The ODIHR and Albania’s Interior Ministry have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the provision of assistance and expertise in drafting an action plan for these reforms. While many newly independent states in the OSCE region have established national legislation on citizenship and related procedures, many governments are still concerned with citizenship issues. For example, thousands of people are living without proper identity and travel documents because their citizenship status in some countries remains unclear. In 2006, the ODIHR began providing assistance for the development of new legislation on citizenship in Kyrgyzstan. The Office provided financial support to a local partner organization that established a working group to develop legislation. Several members of the working group — comprised of members of parliament, as well as lawyers from state institutions, parliament, and the National University — made a study visit to Ukraine to learn about that country’s recent experience in developing similar legislation. In addition, two Kyrgyz lawyers were contracted to provide legal advice to individuals residing in Kyrgyzstan in need of assistance with citizenship issues and in obtaining identification documents. II. Cross-border migration Promoting interstate co-operation on labour migration and integration of migrants into host societies Because of changes to demographic, economic, and social structures, some countries in the OSCE region are in need of foreign workers and professionals, while others are experiencing economic decline and high unemployment rates. As a result, migration is now a significant social and economic phenomenon in the OSCE region, which requires considerable efforts by both sending and receiving countries in order to ensure its benefits. In recent years, the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan have become the main destination countries in the post-Soviet area for migrant workers, mostly citizens of neighbouring countries, including a growing number from Central Asia. Most of these people are irregular migrants, unable to obtain registration and rights to legal employment due to existing regulations. The improvement of migration management systems and effective co-operation between countries would be beneficial both to migrant workers and to host societies, where migrants can fill labour shortages by counterbalancing decreases in the working population. Replacing irregular migrant flows with regular migration is in the best interests of all governments, as irregular migration undermines the legitimacy and credibility of a legal admissions policy, does not result in any tax revenues, often involves corruption and organized crime, and results in widespread violations of migrants’ rights. The ODIHR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) continued in 2006 to provide migration authorities in the Russian Federation with information on possibilities for the development of a state migration regularization programme to assist in the elaboration of an effective and well-grounded regularization campaign. The results of a survey conducted at the end of 2006 by the IOM, the ODIHR, and the Russian authorities to determine attitudes towards a potential regularization campaign among migrants, employers, and regional officials were presented at an international workshop held in Moscow with the participation of experts from Canada, Italy, Spain, and the United States, all of which had conducted similar regularization programmes in the past. Prior to the workshop, the ODIHR, in co-operation with the IOM and the International Labour Organization, published a compilation of materials and good practices in conducting regularization programmes in the OSCE region. The ODIHR continued its co-operation with the educational institutions of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation to elaborate recommendations for regional authorities on improving their work in relation to the admission and employment of migrant workers; these changes are to take place on the basis of surveys Annual Report  45