Russian legislators explain school bans on children of foreign tax evaders

Vera Lekaryova, a Russian expert on social policy, has commented on her bill to ban children of migrants evading taxes from Russian nurseries and schools. The expert pointed to the US, where charity funds stopped giving toys to children of migrants whose parents lacked documents.

The bill should encourage migrants to legalize and create proper conditions for the education of their children, she said. Lekaryova added that Russia needed to form a filter for migrants. The problem is one of the top ones on the list of Russians’ concerns.

The official said that migrants were forced to live in groups of 40 per room. Over 40% of violations are made by illegal migrants, she said

Alexey Zhuravlyov, a member of the Russian parliamentary committee for defense and a co-author of the bill, said that there were no migrants with tax notes. He noted that wives of migrants visit Russia to give birth, a service worth about 50,000 rubles. Their children study in Russia, their often  large families get benefits.

Functionaries of the housing and utilities services pay foreign street cleaners only 5,000 rubles of their wage and keep the other 15,000 rubles for themselves, according to Zhuravlyov. He also pointed out the problem of adaptation and proposed development of a program for assimilation. The legislator added that the idea needed adaption centers in the countries migrants come from.