Migration: problems of guests and hosts

By Vestnik Kavkaza

This summer, Russian officials have many times stated about tightening migration laws. As a result, the head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romadanovsky, proposed banning breakers of the migration laws from visiting Russia for three years – such punishment would be implemented toward those who break terms of staying in Russia and don’t present justified documents.

Yekaterina Yegorova, the state secretary of the FMS

The Concept of the migration policy is a document which correlates our current migration situation and the reality of our life. About 10-12 million foreign citizens come to Russia with various purposes – employment, studying, business trips, curing. The greatest volume of migrants (70-80%) comes to Russia from the states which have visa-free relations with us – the members of the CIS. Illegal migration includes about 3-5 million people. This number is variable. Today we are speaking about 3.5 million migrants who have broken the term of staying in Russia. They probably are working, as one has to have an income source for living in Russia. What is the target of the concept? First of all, we admit that there are certain problems at the employment market caused by the complicated demographic situation and providing the economic growth in Russia. The settlement of this task demands high-qualified workers.

The concept is aimed as consideration various regimes of conducting work activities in Russia. For a long time we saw no difference between an IT-specialist and a yard-keeper who came to Russia. The order was regulated in one and the same way. First steps were made in 2010 when amendments were made in laws. The concept requires settlement of tasks on integration and adaptation of migrants. It is a serious series of questions, which hasn’t been developed in Russia, and we expect the civil society and religious organizations will contribute to implementation of the state migration policy.

The concept touches on forced migration too; there are certain unsolved problems. We should develop a new federal law on refugees. It is quite a serious document which demands fulfillment of international duties.

The other important series of questions is attraction of migrants for permanent living in Russia. The state program on support voluntary resettlement is being implemented successfully. However, this mechanism is the only and we have to establish a system of attracting for permanent settlement, changing approaches to those who come to Russia. Many countries have a standard system of processing papers for residing: if a foreigner decided to connect his life with a country, he or she should correspond to certain criteria; we believe Russia will have the same system.

The concept requires a series of arrangements on prevention illegal migration. It is a dangerous phenomenon connecting with illegal drug traffic, slavery, illegal armament traffic, and a comple of special measures is required.

Aslambek Paskachev, the chairman of the Russian Congress of the Caucasus Peoples

When they say Russia needs an inflow of working forces, it means foreign migrants. Sometimes an opinion is formed in the society that migrants disturb life of local residents and cause all problems in our society People should realize that the FMS doesn’t need it. The fewer migrants come, the less working officials will have. That is why one cannot say that they are interested in migrants. The whole Russian economy is interested in them, the whole country. Considering a big demographic hole, ageing of population and the fact that number of retiring people and the matured will be equal in the nearest future, this problem becomes worse and the demand is growing.

At the same time, we have a problem with internal migrants. First of all, it concerns the North Caucasus, the Far East and northern regions with excess of working population. These people number 2-3 million, and while we have no serious problems with external migrants crossing the border (it is registered), we have such problems with internal migrants. Today it is impossible to follow who and where moves and is situated. We have to develop a target program on resettlement of Russian citizens from regions with excess of population and normalize the system of using external labor force.

These are two interrelated difficult tasks. At the same time, we should prepare the receiving side. Guests have to know where and why they are coming and behave adequately. However, hosts should see benefits in migrants. We held the youth forum “Migration issues and inter-ethnic relations: problems and ways out” on September 8-15. The decisions which were made there were sent to the migration service.

Inter-ethnic conflicts in our country are connected with internal migrants, first of all. Often household conflicts are turned to be inter-ethnic. Economic interests of different groups are often reasons for such conflicts. It is a delicate question and a very important issue for our country. We have to solve this problem as soon as possible.