New law on migrants' children

On October 3 a bill was introduced to the State Duma, according to which access to Russian kindergartens and schools will be closed to the children of migrants who cannot prove that they pay taxes in Russia. The initiators of the bill suggest that it can help free places in the educational institutions for children of the Russian citizens and at least partially solve the problem of queues in kindergartens.

At the moment, the children of foreigners have the right to attend Russian kindergartens and schools provided that their parents have a temporary registration. However, they continue to attend educational institutions even when the registration period, which is currently set at three months, expires. Alexey Zhuravlev, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, and an expert on social policy, Vera Lekareva, commented on the current state of affairs in the field of migration and shared their opinions as to whether the proposal can be a part of the solution to the problem.