Doors are closing: How Russia's migration policy is changing
Migration legislation in Russia has been tightening throughout the year. For example, the authorities banned intermediaries from taking Russian language exams and allowed websites with illegal services for foreigners to be blocked without a court decision. In a number of Russian regions, certain spheres of economic activity are inaccessible for migrants. "Izvestia" looked into how the labor market has changed in this regard.
Legislation in Russia is being toughened
Russian authorities began to tighten migration legislation after the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall in March 2024. Then, as a result of mass shooting, explosions and fire, 145 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. Four alleged perpetrators were arrested in the case, all of them were natives of Tajikistan, several of their compatriots are also among the alleged accomplices. Later, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, sounded the alarm because of the general increase in the number of crimes involving immigrants.
Against this background, the Russian authorities adopted several packages of documents concerning migration. Thus, in August, the regime of expulsion of guest workers was toughened, police officers were given the right to expel newcomers who violated the rules of stay in the country without court authorization. In addition, a law came into force, according to which new citizens will be deprived of their passports if they have not entered the military register. Finally, foreigners were banned from buying SIM cards without submitting biometrics.
Work continued in the fall, and in November the president approved several more regulations. One allows extrajudicial blocking of websites that sell fake documents to newcomers. Another prohibits intermediaries from taking Russian language exams from potential migrants, and only state organizations should be involved in this. A third suggests that in the case of a crime, the illegal status of a migrant will be an aggravating circumstance.
Several other initiatives are in the pipeline. For example, in December, lawmakers banned the admission to schools of children who do not know Russian. More detailed video recording of the Russian language exam is also in the plans. Finally, the creation of a list of professions closed to guest workers is being worked on. "Upbringing, education and health care are spheres where citizens of our country should work. We consider it wrong to involve migrants in them," said Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma.
Regions introduce their own restrictions
More than 30 Russian regions have also introduced their own restrictions. For example, in the Tomsk region migrants are banned from working in catering, education and cabs, in the Novosibirsk region - in trade, catering and car repair. In the Chelyabinsk region, 19 types of economic activity have become prohibited, in Crimea - 35 at once. Some regions have introduced large fines for hiring guest workers in the amount of up to 1 million rubles for each foreigner.
At the same time, the trend is only gaining momentum. So, the governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratiev reported that next year the Kuban will completely ban the attraction of foreign labor. "We have a competition of up to six people per place in colleges, and no one needs graduates on the labor market. The heads of enterprises need to change their approach, it's time to stop waiting for people to come to them, and go to the students themselves, pay a stipend to get a worker after graduating from college," he urged.
Finally, there are regular reports of raids against illegal migrants. In late October, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that this year one and a half times as many newcomers were expelled from the country as last year, and the number of people prosecuted for violations of the residence regime increased by 15%. "34,000 decisions were made to reduce the period of temporary stay, as well as 180,000 - to restrict the possibility to come to Russia. The growth amounted to 23 and 50% respectively," he emphasized.
The volume of remittances is only growing
In August 2024, Rosstat stopped publishing data on migration and the total population of Russia, now only information on birth rate, mortality and natural population decline is published. The agency noted that this is due to the transition to new software, which in the future will allow faster processing of information. Now it is quite difficult to assess the impact of numerous legislative measures on migration flows.
It is known that at the end of the first half of this year there were fewer foreigners. Thus, in January-July demographers counted 134 thousand new migrants from five Central Asian countries, which is 19% less than in the same period last year. From Tajikistan came 63 thousand people, a year earlier there were 88 thousand. From Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan arrived 21 thousand people each, a year earlier there were about 50 thousand for two.
It should be separately emphasized that Rosstat counted only those migrants who registered at their place of residence for a period of nine months or more, and temporary labor migrants who came for a short period of time were not counted. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has more complete statistics, but since last year the agency has also stopped making the data publicly available. In late October, however, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that there are 6.5 million foreigners in the country, 740 thousand of whom are illegal.
Another important indicator is the volume of remittances. Here the results are unexpected, guest workers began to send home even more money than before the tightening of legislative norms. For example, in January-October, migrants from Uzbekistan sent $9.8 billion from Russia, which is 35% more than in the same period last year. Natives of Kyrgyzstan in January-October - $2.3 billion, which is 17% more than a year earlier. The Central Bank of Tajikistan does not provide data on remittances, so it is difficult to estimate them.
These indicators, apparently, allow the authorities of the Central Asian countries to be optimistic about the future. Throughout the year, they made almost no comments on the tightening of Russian legislation. In May, only Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon made an appearance, calling on Moscow to fight terrorism "avoiding double standards. In October, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Akylbek Zhaparov said that the tightening of migration legislation should not contradict the EAEU treaty.
What experts say
Alexander Vorobyev, head of the Center for Public Diplomacy and World Policy Analysis and a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasizes that Central Asia is cautious about Russian legislative norms.
- The elites have an understanding of why Russia is acting this way. They realize that Moscow takes the terrorist threat with the utmost seriousness, and they also carefully study demographic aspects and do not want to completely replace their own population. In addition, the Russian leadership is in close contact with its Central Asian colleagues, and they get all the information they need firsthand. It is more difficult with the population of these countries, the public is more subject to emotions. Nevertheless, I think that if Russia refrains from extremes and continues to calmly regulate its migration policy, there will be no problems," he says.
Political scientist Rustam Burnashev said Central Asian countries are closely monitoring changes in Russian migration policy.
- Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which are not members of the EAEU, are watching them especially closely. At the same time, it is clear that migration policy is Russia's internal affair, and any outside comments are inappropriate. Besides, not all legislative norms prevent migration. For example, the prohibition for children to study in schools without knowledge of the Russian language applies to those who want to fully settle in Russia, and in no way prevents them from coming to work," he notes.
