DUSHANBE, April 1, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Russian government plans to simplify immigration procedures for foreign nationals seeking work in Russia.
Russian media outlets report this issue was discussed at a meeting of the government commission led First Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov on March 30. The meeting considered a draft migration policy strategy developed by Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS). The document reportedly provides for scraping all quotas for labor migrants, making them easier to hire.
Viktor Skobelev, head of FMS’s office in Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus Thursday afternoon that the document is still under consideration. “The issue of abolishing quotas for foreign workers has been discussed for a long time,” said Skobelev, “I, however, consider that it is still premature [to scrap foreign worker quotas]. Like any other country, Russia must take care of, first of all, its own labor market and only then of labor migrants.”
According to him, Russia’s labor market is not well protected, and therefore, there must be an organized recruitment of labor migrants in Russia.
Ms. Nodira Abdulloyeva, labor migration program coordinator, Human Rights Center, noted that abolition of foreign worker quota would be in interest of our labor migrants. “But the question is whether this concept will work or all its goals and objectives will just remain on paper again,” said she, “Russia’ policy regarding labor migrants is not yet precise and it quite often depends on the political situation in the country.”
“Tajikistan must take this factor into account and create it migration policy with regard to seeking alternative labor markets,” the Human Rights Center representative noted.
In the meantime, Russia’s news agency, RIA Novosti, reported on March 29 that according to
Izvestiya
, migrant workers currently account for 7- 9% of Russia’s GDP. But despite the issue’s importance, the government has no clear-cut view on whether or not it needs foreign labor. The newspaper quoted Vladimir Volokh, a member of the migration service’s public council, as saying that Russia’s migration policy is changeable, with quotas increasing or falling depending on the current political situation.
Obtaining an official work permit is difficult for a migrant worker. Not surprisingly, over 60% of Russia’s immigrants work illegally. Russia’s 2011 official quota for foreign workers, for example, is 1,754,000, while the real figure is closer to 4 or 5 million. In Volokh’s view, this figure has been steady for the past five years. “We have a fairly absurd situation: we allow job-seekers from former Soviet republics to enter Russia visa-free, while littering work permit formalities with all sorts of hurdles, prompting them to go outside the law,” Volokh says.
