Russia introduces integration course aimed at Central Asian migrant workers

Russia’s Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs (FADN) has developed a course designed to better facilitate integration for migrant workers from Central Asia, state-affiliated business daily Kommersant reported on Monday.

The course, which consists of a 70-minute lecture in four parts, provides an overview of Russia’s migration and labour laws, as well as guidelines on how to behave in the country.

The four-part lecture will first inform migrants about the procedure for entering and staying in Russia as a migrant worker, and detail the controversial fast-track procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship by enlisting in the military to fight in Ukraine.

Migrants will then be taught about Russian behavioural norms, especially those involving interactions with members of the opposite sex. According to Kommersant, migrants would be advised that “the words ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ are not acceptable terms of address for people who are not relatives or close acquaintances” and that “it is unacceptable to display open signs of religious belief in public, to perform religious rites on the street, to conduct prayers in public places”, as well as stressing that animal sacrifices are “unacceptable”.

A third section covers immigration law, while a fourth focuses on the “centuries-old history of friendship” between Russia and the countries of Central Asia.

FADN told Kommersant that the course would be rolled out by the authorities in each region of the country, four of which had already successfully tested a trial version of the lecture.

After it emerged that all but one of the men arrested for their roles in the March terror attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall were citizens of Tajikistan, Russia suffered a surge of xenophobia and there were immediate mass raids and deportations of overseas citizens in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

While he welcomed the new course, Boris Panich, who runs a St. Petersburg social project, expressed his doubts over how effective it would be. Nevertheless, he did tell Kommersant that Russia’s regional authorities had long sought greater support from the FADN in creating a standard integration course for recently arrived migrant workers.