Migration: tightening or adapting?

Yeugeny Nikolaichuk. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The head of Russia's Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovski, has recently said that an inflow of migrants from other countries is inevitable. Migration becomes necessary for filling labor resources in the context of reducing Russian population. “Local labor markets of many Russian regions experience not only relative, but also absolute deficit of labor force today,” he stated.

As an argument the head of FMS presented figures: according to a common predicting variant by Russian Statistics, the country’s population will decrease to 139 people by 2030. The problem of depopulation is acute. “It is difficult to imagine our country in 50 years, if this tendency remains,” Romodanovski said.

The volumes of illegal migration to Russia are about 3-5 million people, according to FMS. The majority of illegal migrants are natives from the North Caucasus and the CIS countries. The situation with legal migration is not easy as well. It often has a formal-criminal character when employers are ready to register cheap non-professional labor force as specialists in favor of benefits; while migrants don’t know the language of the country where they go to work.

It seems that the current situation puts bureaucrats of the migration service to a nonplus. They are torn between tightening of requirements to migrants and liberalization of the process. In late October the parliament adopted the law requiring that migrants who work in Russia in the communal, trade, and service spheres should pass a Russian language test. Two weeks before it was reported that the governmental committee on competition and development of minor and middle business ordered the Ministry of Labor to develop a project of an act on cancellation of zero quota for foreign employees in retail business.

However, most shops and communal households succeeded in avoiding these restrictions before the law: they “rented” labor force from third companies – migrants were not registered in staffs of shops and communal households, but worked for them for a whole day. The state made unprecedented preferences for Tajik laborers: now they can get permission for working in Russia for three years, while time for registration of these migrants will be prolonged to 15 days.

It seems carrot prevails in the policy of carrots and sticks. The point is not in loyalty and tolerance of bureaucrats. Russians don’t want to work in retail business, as well as the communal system or construction. “Economically active population of Russia doesn’t consider working in retail business attractive and goes there only in critical cases. It is though to be timely, non-permanent job,” the letter by the Association of Retail Business Companies to the minister of industry and trade, Denis Manturov, says. The reason is simple: an average salary in Russia is 27 thousand rubles, unskilled workers get 20 thousand rubles. Migrants are ok with this.

The member of the Public Council under FMS Aslambek Paskachyov said that for future 10 years no overage of labor force is predicted. The internal migration is taking place from the North Caucasus republics, which is caused by unemployment in the region.

It is an important aspect, as even if the program till 2025 will be perfectly fulfilled, they couldn’t establish as many working places as it is necessary for full employment. Therefore, there is a need in organization of migration for avoiding conflicts.

The state structures have to provide adaptation of migrants from the CIS countries: the migration service, the employment center, and the Internal Ministry. Social organizations have to join the work and encourage the process.