From the new year, labor migrants in Russia must obtain a patent
The head of the center 'Migration and Law', Gavkhar Dzhuraeva, told Lenta.ru that migrants now dream only that the police and the FMS of Russia do not have enough hands, strength and opportunities to deport illegal immigrants from the country. 'According to our data, there are indeed a lot of people leaving and very few entering,' says Dzhuraeva.
The migrants themselves also report the departure of their compatriots to their homeland. 'They think: it is more profitable for us at home with the same salaries. Some even get 25 thousand rubles or 20 thousand there,' says a janitor named Said from Fergana. He has been sweeping the yards near the 'Tekstilshchiki' metro station for several years, and now he is almost the last one from Uzbekistan in the area. The earnings of migrants in Moscow, converted into dollars or local currency, have fallen sharply.
Interestingly, in the second half of January, Konstantin Romodanovsky adjusted his forecast in an interview with the 'Russia' TV channel. According to him, despite the tightening of migration legislation, there will be no problems with a shortage of labor. 'I think in a month or two we will reach normal numbers, and there will be no difficulties related to foreign labor in Russia,' said the head of the FMS.
Romodanovsky's words are confirmed by statistical data published by the FMS on January 20, 2015. No sharp decline in the number of labor migrants was recorded. Compared to February of last year, the number of arrivals from Tajikistan in Russia decreased by 4 percent, from Uzbekistan by 2 percent. And the number of arrivals from Kyrgyzstan even increased by 4 percent.
The situation in Moscow is similar. According to estimates by the capital's Department of Labor and Employment, the number of foreign labor migrants in 2015 will be 852 thousand people. Approximately the same number of foreign labor migrants – 844 thousand people – participated in the economic life of the capital in 2013. Officials of the capital's government predict that in the next three years the number of guest workers will not change significantly, although there will be a tendency to decrease.
According to experts, fluctuations in the number of arrivals may be related to the traditional seasonal factor. Some representatives of national diasporas share the same point of view. 'Most migrants leave Russia on the eve of the New Year holidays and return to work in the spring, ahead of the dacha season. Closer to April-May of this year, when dacha construction work begins, it will be possible to truly find out whether the number of arriving workers has decreased,' said the head of the Union of Tajikistanis of Russia, Abdullo Dovlatov, to Lenta.ru. Citizens of Kyrgyzstan apparently work mainly in non-seasonal labor sectors, so FMS specialists did not record their outflow.
Experts believe that arrivals from Central Asian countries will continue to play a significant role in the capital's labor market.