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THOUSANDS OF RUSSIA'S LABOUR MIGRANTS ARE PACKING BAGS
ITAR-TASS, Russia
January 13, 2015 Tuesday 05:00 PM GMT+4
by Lyudmila Alexandrova
MOSCOW January 13.
On my way to work the other day I overheard a telling dialogue between
two guest workers: the share taxi's driver (judging by his appearance,
an ethnic Tajik), and one of his passengers (obviously a guest from
Armenia). Both were speaking fluent Russian
"I'm leaving," the Tajik driver said. "The kind of money I am making
these days I will be able to earn at home just as easy."
"Me, too," the Armenian passenger replied. "The more so, since now
you've got to buy a license to get a job."
The rouble's 50-percent slump and latest measures to tighten migration
legislation have succeeded there where the most ardent xenophobes had
repeatedly failed. Guest workers have begun to flee Russia. Back last
year the representatives of ethnic communities repeatedly warned that
even an exchange rate of 45-50 roubles per dollar was unacceptable
for most labour migrants. At the moment one dollar is traded for
65 roubles.
In the first days of January the influx of guest workers dwindled by
70% in contrast to that in the same period of a year ago, the chief of
Russia's Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said on
the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock news channel. According to the official,
the overall number of migrants from Central Asia is declining.
"The economy is one of the factors. The other is we have restored
order to the rules of presence in Russia," Romodanovsky said. In the
meantime, the number of migrants from neighbouring Ukraine and from
Moldova has been on the rise, he added.
Labour migrants - are they an evil or a blessing? This is a question
Russians have been asking themselves ever more often of late, as
crowds of guest workers have been leaving for home. On the one hand,
many Russians still have a rather strong xenophobic sentiment, fuelled
with media reports of high level of migration-related crime. On the
other, many Muscovites are already complaining that the removal of
snow from the city streets in the first days of the new year leaves
much to be desired.
"Since January 1 five migrant workers have quit their jobs of their
own accord," a man who identified himself as Irakly, a restaurant
owner in St. Petersburg, complained on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
"No Russian is eager to do the dishes. I just don't know how go about
this business."
With the beginning of 2015 migrants have found it far more difficult
to get employment in Russia. Instead of quotas for migrant workers
the authorities have introduced a system of licenses that will have to
be paid for not by the employees, but by the guest workers themselves.
Under the newly-effective rule each new arrival is obliged to apply
to the Federal Migration Service for an employment license within a
30-day deadline. Also, guest workers will have to acquire a voluntary
medical insurance policy for the whole period the employment license
will be effective, certificates testifying the Russian language,
history and legislation tests have been successfully passed. Also,
starting from January 1 all CIS citizens will be able to enter Russia
only upon the presentation of a foreign travel passport. Exceptions
are made for the countries affiliated with the Eurasian Economic
Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, as well as Kyrgyzstan,
which hopes to join the EEU later this year.
The local authorities are free to decide how much to charge for an
employment license. In Moscow it may cost 4,000 roubles, which,
according to migrants' own calculations implies a monthly pay of
more than 30,000 roubles. Wages that big exist only in the building
industry. The average pay in the housing and utilities sector is
far smaller.
Punishments for abusing the migration rules have been tightened since
January 10. Those who stay in Russia for more than 120 days without
the proper legal formalities accomplished would entail an automatic
entry ban for three years. Those who have been present in Russian
territory illegally for more than 270 days can forget about coming
to Russia again for the next five years, and illegal stay for 360
days and more will be punishable with a ten year entry ban.
Romodanovsky said the number of migrants who are present in Russia
legally and that illegal workers are now approximately equal. He
estimates that per 2.7 million legal guests there are about 2.9
million illegal ones.
Experts believe that the measures to tighten legislation are ill-timed
and the Russian economy should brace for a heavy blow.
The economic situation as it is, Russia these days needs migrants
more than before, says the head of the Civil Assistance committee,
Svetlana Gannushkina. "We can no longer afford to pay foreigners
lucrative wages to keep them here. The guest workers are leaving. In
the meantime, Russia has been tightening laws," the daily Novyie
Izvestia quotes Gannushkina as saying.
Harsher migration rules will yield no benefits, warns the president of
the Migration 21st Century foundation, Vyacheslav Postavnin. "It will
merely push up the number of illegal migrants and fuel corruption,"
says Postavnin.
"At a time when migrants were arriving in uncontrolled flows such steps
to tighten migration legislation would have been quite reasonable,
but today's situation is very different," senior lecturer at the
Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public
Administration, Tatyana Ilarionova, has told TASS.
"The rouble's fall makes it still worse. Migrants feel that having
a job in Russia is fraught with too many risks. But over the past
fifteen years these people have managed to get blended into our
economic landscape. Such industries as construction, retail trade,
the services, and the housing and utilities sector will begin to
experience problems. Naturally, this is very bad for the economy."
The events in the southeast of Ukraine have pushed up the influx
of Ukrainian migrants, but they are very unlikely to take the niche
vacated by leaving guest workers from Central Asia and do the jobs
in the building industry, the housing and utilities sector or to seek
fortune in Siberia or the Far East," Ilarionova said. --0--str
From: Baghdasarian
ITAR-TASS, Russia
January 13, 2015 Tuesday 05:00 PM GMT+4
by Lyudmila Alexandrova
MOSCOW January 13.
On my way to work the other day I overheard a telling dialogue between
two guest workers: the share taxi's driver (judging by his appearance,
an ethnic Tajik), and one of his passengers (obviously a guest from
Armenia). Both were speaking fluent Russian
"I'm leaving," the Tajik driver said. "The kind of money I am making
these days I will be able to earn at home just as easy."
"Me, too," the Armenian passenger replied. "The more so, since now
you've got to buy a license to get a job."
The rouble's 50-percent slump and latest measures to tighten migration
legislation have succeeded there where the most ardent xenophobes had
repeatedly failed. Guest workers have begun to flee Russia. Back last
year the representatives of ethnic communities repeatedly warned that
even an exchange rate of 45-50 roubles per dollar was unacceptable
for most labour migrants. At the moment one dollar is traded for
65 roubles.
In the first days of January the influx of guest workers dwindled by
70% in contrast to that in the same period of a year ago, the chief of
Russia's Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said on
the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock news channel. According to the official,
the overall number of migrants from Central Asia is declining.
"The economy is one of the factors. The other is we have restored
order to the rules of presence in Russia," Romodanovsky said. In the
meantime, the number of migrants from neighbouring Ukraine and from
Moldova has been on the rise, he added.
Labour migrants - are they an evil or a blessing? This is a question
Russians have been asking themselves ever more often of late, as
crowds of guest workers have been leaving for home. On the one hand,
many Russians still have a rather strong xenophobic sentiment, fuelled
with media reports of high level of migration-related crime. On the
other, many Muscovites are already complaining that the removal of
snow from the city streets in the first days of the new year leaves
much to be desired.
"Since January 1 five migrant workers have quit their jobs of their
own accord," a man who identified himself as Irakly, a restaurant
owner in St. Petersburg, complained on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
"No Russian is eager to do the dishes. I just don't know how go about
this business."
With the beginning of 2015 migrants have found it far more difficult
to get employment in Russia. Instead of quotas for migrant workers
the authorities have introduced a system of licenses that will have to
be paid for not by the employees, but by the guest workers themselves.
Under the newly-effective rule each new arrival is obliged to apply
to the Federal Migration Service for an employment license within a
30-day deadline. Also, guest workers will have to acquire a voluntary
medical insurance policy for the whole period the employment license
will be effective, certificates testifying the Russian language,
history and legislation tests have been successfully passed. Also,
starting from January 1 all CIS citizens will be able to enter Russia
only upon the presentation of a foreign travel passport. Exceptions
are made for the countries affiliated with the Eurasian Economic
Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia, as well as Kyrgyzstan,
which hopes to join the EEU later this year.
The local authorities are free to decide how much to charge for an
employment license. In Moscow it may cost 4,000 roubles, which,
according to migrants' own calculations implies a monthly pay of
more than 30,000 roubles. Wages that big exist only in the building
industry. The average pay in the housing and utilities sector is
far smaller.
Punishments for abusing the migration rules have been tightened since
January 10. Those who stay in Russia for more than 120 days without
the proper legal formalities accomplished would entail an automatic
entry ban for three years. Those who have been present in Russian
territory illegally for more than 270 days can forget about coming
to Russia again for the next five years, and illegal stay for 360
days and more will be punishable with a ten year entry ban.
Romodanovsky said the number of migrants who are present in Russia
legally and that illegal workers are now approximately equal. He
estimates that per 2.7 million legal guests there are about 2.9
million illegal ones.
Experts believe that the measures to tighten legislation are ill-timed
and the Russian economy should brace for a heavy blow.
The economic situation as it is, Russia these days needs migrants
more than before, says the head of the Civil Assistance committee,
Svetlana Gannushkina. "We can no longer afford to pay foreigners
lucrative wages to keep them here. The guest workers are leaving. In
the meantime, Russia has been tightening laws," the daily Novyie
Izvestia quotes Gannushkina as saying.
Harsher migration rules will yield no benefits, warns the president of
the Migration 21st Century foundation, Vyacheslav Postavnin. "It will
merely push up the number of illegal migrants and fuel corruption,"
says Postavnin.
"At a time when migrants were arriving in uncontrolled flows such steps
to tighten migration legislation would have been quite reasonable,
but today's situation is very different," senior lecturer at the
Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public
Administration, Tatyana Ilarionova, has told TASS.
"The rouble's fall makes it still worse. Migrants feel that having
a job in Russia is fraught with too many risks. But over the past
fifteen years these people have managed to get blended into our
economic landscape. Such industries as construction, retail trade,
the services, and the housing and utilities sector will begin to
experience problems. Naturally, this is very bad for the economy."
The events in the southeast of Ukraine have pushed up the influx
of Ukrainian migrants, but they are very unlikely to take the niche
vacated by leaving guest workers from Central Asia and do the jobs
in the building industry, the housing and utilities sector or to seek
fortune in Siberia or the Far East," Ilarionova said. --0--str
From: Baghdasarian