Last week, the head of the FMS department for compatriots, Yevgeny Manyatkin, once again repeated the promise to provide potential repatriates with housing, jobs, and simplified citizenship. According to him, the federal subjects that are to become the new small homeland for the migrants have mostly finished work on their regional programs and are now coordinating them with the center. Next year, under these programs, Russia will be able to accept the first 50,000 repatriates.
According to Manyatkin, five representative offices of the Russian Federal Migration Service have already been opened in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, and Tajikistan, where anyone wishing to return to Russia can apply. The opening of representative offices in Ukraine and... Georgia is also being prepared. From far abroad, special structures to attract repatriates will appear in Germany and Israel.
The FMS representative reminded that the federal authorities pledge to provide each family of migrants with a five-ton container for transporting belongings and pay for travel, and in some regions, authorities are even ready to provide relocation allowances of 100,000 rubles. All compatriots are promised accelerated, within a week, granting of official temporary resident status in Russia. In addition, the procedure for obtaining citizenship for program participants is expected to be maximally accelerated, reducing bureaucratic procedures to six months. 'All family members will receive citizenship. No one will break up families,' assured the head of the FMS department for compatriots.
However, the Federal Migration Service was unable to report triumphantly on the implementation of the presidential decree, which on June 26 of this year approved a state program to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots to Russia. Yevgeny Manyatkin was forced to acknowledge the existence of a number of problems. The issue of the possibility of return for compatriots of retirement age remains unresolved. The fact is that regions are interested in attracting new labor resources, and, as Manyatkin noted, a mandatory condition for participation in the resettlement program is the provision of a job. The obligations of the migrant to the region that provided him with shelter and a job are also being discussed.
Here, a conflict of interest is possible between repatriates who want to settle closer to cultural, industrial, and financial centers, and Russian authorities interested in filling 'white spots' on the labor market map. 'We will not chain anyone to their new place of residence,' promised Yevgeny Manyatkin, but warned that in a number of regions, apparently, a rule will apply under which migrants will have to return the paid allowance if they decide to move to a more promising location.
But the main problem that officials tasked with implementing the presidential decree will have to solve is apparently the division of those wishing to settle in Russia into migrants, who will face a tightening of the residence regime in the future, and compatriots, who are promised so many indulgences. 'A compatriot is a person who considers himself our compatriot, is raised in Russian culture, and is ready to realize himself in Russia,' tried to formulate the criteria for 'artificial selection' the head of the FMS department for compatriots. But, apparently realizing the nationalist subtext of such an approach, he immediately added that 'no restrictions on national, racial, or religious grounds are provided.' Perhaps a clearer definition will be developed during the World Conference of Compatriots scheduled for October 24-25 in St. Petersburg.