DUSHANBE, October 4, Asia-Plus — Issues of state of Tajik labor migrants in Russia will not be resolved until Tajikistan takes vocational training of potential labor migrants upon itself, Anvar Boboyev, the deputy director of the State Agency for Social Protection, Employment of the Population and Migration at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, Russia needs Tajik labor migrants, but “we should train specialists and not send unskilled laborers there.” “It is necessary to resolve the issue of vocational training, otherwise the state of labor migrants in Russia will not change. ”
He noted that an agreement on establishment of the council of the CIS migration service heads, which is supposed to be signed at the CIS summit in Dushanbe tomorrow, is imperative.
“It is necessary to resolve all issues connected to rules of staying of migrants in Russia, and adoption by Russia of the new migration legislation has been the first step towards this,” said Boboyev.
According to him, 63,000 Tajik migrants were legalized in the Russian Federation in 2006, and more than 200,000 in 2007.
“At present new prospects are opening before Tajikistan to expand cooperation with Russian regions, which are ready to accept our migrants,” said Boboyev, “It means that migrants from all regions of the country will work legally in Russia.”
He added that the agency had set up 15 centers on vocational training for potential migrants. “But our efforts are not enough to tackle the problem,” said the deputy director, “Annually, some 500,000-600,000 Tajiks leave for Russian seeking better employment opportunities, while we are able to train not more than 7,500-8,000 specialists.”
“Earlier, the Ministry of Labor was able to train more skilled workers at vocational-technical schools, but after they were transferred to jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education it has become impossible to follow how many specialist the vocational-technical schools have turned out,” Boboyev said, noting that the vocational-technical schools had previously turned out some 18,000 specialists per year.
In the meantime, Tajik political scientist Parviz Mullojonov considers it practically impossible to resolve the issue of a status of Tajik labor migrants in Russia today. “At present, according to some estimates, there are some 10 million labor migrants from different countries in the Russian Federation, and only less than 10 percent of them have legal status,” said Mullojonov, “Legalization means providing migrants with certain social privileges that would be a heavy burden for the Russian budget.”
Most likely, the CIS summit will discuss ways how to make migration flows more regulated and controllable, Mullojonov said. “But it is unreal to make the migration flows today transparent”
