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Russia takes decisive anti-migration measures to provide employment for the local population and to prevent the emergence of foreign enclaves in the country. Experts are concerned, however, that actual results may differ from the aim stated.
In early October, at the height of the conflict with Georgia, President Vladimir Putin demanded that the government “regulate the presence of foreign workers” in trade.
Under the government decision passed on Wednesday, foreigners will be denied permission to work in retail trade from the next year, and the quotas for labour migrants from those countries with which Russia has a visa regime are reduced by 20,000 to 300,000. In addition, the Ministry of Economic Development proposed to fix the compulsory minimum of domestic producers trading in Russian markets.
Under the government decree, employers, as of January 1, 2007, cannot hire foreigners, also from CIS countries, to sell alcohol and medicines. As of April 1, 2007, employers will be prohibited from hiring foreigners as sales people in shops and kiosks, as workers in markets and in street trade.
It is said openly among the government that the priorities have shifted, and it is necessary to provide jobs for the local population.
Deputy Premier Alexander Zhukov noted on Thursday that the decree fixed for the next year the quota of 6 million foreign workers who can come to Russia from CIS countries visa-free. “We want the market to be transparent and to function in accordance with Russian laws,” Zhukov stressed.
Russia has a non-visa regime with all CIS countries, except for Georgia and Turkmenistan.
At expert estimate, the deputy premier said, from 7 to 12 million illegal immigrants from CIS countries now work in Russia.
The Federal Migration Service (FMS) set the limit to immigrants at 20 percent. Vyacheslav Postavnin, the FMS deputy director, told the newspaper Vremya Novostei that local people begin to feel discomfort when the share of immigrants in the region exceeds 17-20 percent.
According to Postavnin, there are regions in Russia where the share of immigrants is much higher than 20 percent. He mentioned among them Far Eastern regions where many Chinese reside.
According to his information, there are several districts in Moscow with excessive concentration of foreigners. He mentioned the district of the Cherkizovo market where Azerbaijani predominate, which has already led to “the outflow of local population.” “Newcomers to such regions, as a rule, do not assimilate or integrate into society, but begin to live according to their own rules,” Postavnin said.
“There is a need for quotas to regulate immigration from the CIS, as there must be no enclaves in the territory of our country with the predominance of citizens of a different state. This is quite apparent,” Postavnin said.
Experts, however, fear that the new measures will not bring the desired effect.
“I would welcome any measures regarding migration if only they be enacted as planned,” Sergei Popov, an independent deputy of the State Duma (Yabloko Party), told Itar-Tass. “Barriers are placed to honest people, while crook will clear all barriers, anyway,” he added.
Irina Gavrilova, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, goes along with this. “Xenophobia may surge, and, as is characteristic of us, the proclaimed aims and the results of the measures taken may be wide apart,” she told ltar-Tass.
“Law-abiding immigrants will be blocked by various bureaucratic obstacles; honest people will be barred from the labour market, while criminal elements, despite all barriers, will easily find their way into it,” she believes.
Nevertheless, Gavrilova agreed that “it would be wrong to throw the door wide open to foreigners, as local people will then be crowded out of the labour market.”
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