Interview by Vestnik Kavkaza
The acute Russian problem of labor migration may become even more difficult due to the ongoing crisis between Moscow and Kiev. Today about 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens are working in Russia, most of them are builders and drivers. Experts predict that the inflow of labor migration from Ukraine to Russia will probably reduce, but then recover. Alexander Tsipko, the senior scientist of the Institute for International Economic and Political Studies of the RAS, told Vestnik Kavkaza about solutions of migration problems in Russia.
- What are ways of settlement of migration problems in Russia?
- The problem of migration is a problem of demography, the problem of Russia’s fate, from the ethnic point of view within the global civilization when the population in Asia is growing and which by 2050 will include 5 billion people. At the same time, the Russian population is growingslightly, but in general we can see degradation. People continue to die of alcohol abuse. We are still leaders in the world according to a number of abortions among the ethnic population. I think it should be discussed, if we are seriously speaking about the migration problem, not only technically.
Everybody says that illegal migration is connected with corruption. In general the problem is not in migration itself, but in the system of our legal consciousness, the law-enforcement system, and the problem of corruption in the country. It appears that ethnic criminality is connected with our law-enforcement bodies. So, it seems all problems of migration are not pure problems of migration, but problems of effectiveness of our state bodies.
The problem of migration is not only about the lack of population, but about the fact that after dissolution of the USSR the ethnic Russian population, young people lost interest to manual labor. Hard manual labor, we students of the MSU used to work loaders, guards. We came from poor families and it was understandable for us. The modern young generation neglects manual labor. Many people say it is connected with ideological reasons, i.e. there were heroes of labor in the USSR. I don’t think it is the only reason, that manual labor is not prestigious. To be honest, even in the USSR people involved in manual force were considered losers.
- Will interest to manual labor solve the problems?
- There is no legal culture in the society, no awareness that you should earn money for living honestly. After the dissolution of the USSR we get many freebies and neglect human responsibilities. Today there is no understanding that to reach something one should start from the simplest things. The problem of migration is connected with the problem of a birth rate. Finally, let’s be honest that Russia, the country which is a champion of abortion in the world, has no future, it kills itself. Therefore, the problem of migration touched on the whole complex of social problems – responsibility of a person for his or her life, the problem of abortions, the problem of corruption, the problem of law-enforcement agencies’ work, and the problem of our consciousness. There is illegal migration in Germany, but a law-abiding German won’t hire illegal migrants, he will fear a court. But we have no legal consciousness.
