| Russia has ceased to be attractive to foreign workers The only region through which Russia will be able to replenish its labor resources and solve demographic problems remains the backward part of Asia. We can no longer count on qualified and at least somewhat educated migrants from the republics of the former USSR and Eastern Europe. This disappointing conclusion was announced yesterday at a scientific and practical seminar “Development of Labor Migration in the Russian Federation” organized by the Moscow office of the World Bank. “Over the past 15 years, Russia has missed its chance to become the “America of the 21st century” and attract twice as many labor resources,” said Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya, director of the Center for Migration Studies. “And that’s why our country now cannot choose exclusively Russian migrants who are qualified or at least know the language.” According to Ms. Zayonchkovskaya, Kazakhstan, which is distinguished by a more liberal attitude towards labor migrants, is becoming a real competitor to Russia. “And Ukraine, which supplied us with guest workers, in my opinion, in five years will itself pump out Russian labor, because production there is developing very dynamically,” says Ms. Zayonchkovskaya.
For the first time, the Russian representative office of the World Bank invited famous demographers to discuss the problems of labor migration in our country. “In past years, we were interested in this problem from the point of view of the restructuring of industries and the accompanying movement of population between regions. In particular, in 2001, we launched a project to promote the voluntary departure of the population from the Far North,” explained the director of the WB representative office, Kristalina Georgieva. - However, in addition to internal migration, the bank is seriously interested in issues of migration between states. In addition, Russia does not have the best demographic forecasts, and a state with such a territory needs to think about how to attract the population from the outside.”
According to experts, the only direction from which a massive influx of migration can still be expected is Asia. Moreover, within the borders of the former CIS we are talking only about immigrants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the majority of whom are not ready for skilled work. From far abroad, the supplier of labor can be, for example, the “great and terrible” China, whose dominance of immigrants from which radical politicians are now frightening the inhabitants of the Far East. “If we are so afraid of the Chinese, we can pay attention to the Filipinos or Indonesians. But in any case, we can no longer even count on a qualified workforce - Russia must be ready to teach them for free, as well as clothe and feed them during their studies,” said Ms. Zayonchkovskaya, emphasizing that This is only possible with a radical change in migration policy. “Recently, even the Ministry of Internal Affairs realized that they had gone too far: attempts are being made to adjust the law “On the Legal Status of Foreign Labor”, changes are proposed to the rules for registration and issuance of work permits,” says the head of the Center for Migration Research.
The World Bank, for its part, is still acting as an outside but interested observer. As Andrei Markov, senior adviser to the social programs department of the Moscow representative office of the World Bank, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent, the bank does not yet have specific projects for financial assistance to labor migration in Russia, but there is a need to study this issue in detail. “The Russian economy serves as a magnet for attracting migrants, and a significant part of them is illegal. This means that policy in this area needs to be improved - either directed or controlled. And the time has come for Russia to decide on this,” he says. Irina BELASHEVA |
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