From quotas turn

The government will determine what kind of guest workers Russia needs

It seems that the Russian authorities have compelling demographic, economic or political reasons to literally change migration policy on the fly. The regulations prepared by the Federal Migration Service, which complement the laws on the status of foreign citizens and labor migration signed in the summer, no longer promise the liberalization that officials and deputies talked about in the summer.

The package of documents, which will be submitted to the government on Friday, essentially proposes a general change in the rules for quotas of foreign workers in Russia. It seems that labor migrants can forget about the complete abolition of quotas for citizens from CIS countries who have a visa-free regime with our country.

“Nobody has canceled quotas for foreigners and is not going to,” Denis Soldatikov, deputy head of the public relations department of the Federal Migration Service, told Vremya Novostei yesterday. “If previously the number of foreign citizens from the Commonwealth countries was regulated by the employment center, on the basis of which permits were issued to almost everyone, now the regions will have to submit applications for the number of personnel they need, and based on these numbers the government will set limits.” Today, according to the FMS press service, quotas apply to all foreign citizens, including residents of those CIS countries with which Russia maintains a visa-free regime (that is, to all Commonwealth countries except Georgia and Turkmenistan). However, “visa-free” migrants have significant relaxations in quotas compared to their Georgian and Turkmen colleagues. According to statistics from the Federal Migration Service, out of 358,922 CIS citizens who legally entered the country in the first half of 2006, there were only 3.5 thousand and 331 Georgians and Turkmens, respectively. And the main flow of guest workers comes from Uzbekistan (more than 60 thousand), Moldova (almost 36 thousand) and Armenia (27.5 thousand).

The migration service believes that the new rules for establishing quotas, the essence of which is not disclosed until Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has read the document, will not cause discord between foreign workers from the former Soviet republics. “These measures are not discriminatory in nature,” Interfax quotes Konstantin Poltoranin, head of the FMS public relations department. “The requirements for migrants from different CIS countries will be absolutely the same.” In his opinion, the new course of migration policy will only create “an effective mechanism for regulating labor migration” that will not “violate the rights of the indigenous population.” To protect the interests of Russians, as well as to unify legislation with the European Union, it is planned to halve, from six months to 90 days, the period of permanent stay in Russia for all labor migrants with a multiple-entry annual visa. Well, these measures should be complemented by an increase in fines for violating the migration regime. In particular, from January 15, even private individuals will be fined in the amount of 20 to 50 minimum wages for attracting guest workers to work on garden plots without appropriate permission. For officials of companies using foreign labor without permission, the fine will be from 200 to 500 minimum wages, and for the companies themselves - up to 8 thousand minimum wages. Moreover, the fine will have to be paid individually for each illegal immigrant hired. In addition, the foreigner himself, whose stated purpose of entering Russia turns out to be inappropriate for his activity, will pay a fine in the amount of 20 to 50 minimum wages and, most likely, will be deported.

According to the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, Alexander Moskalets, quotas for foreign workers, which the law placed under the jurisdiction of the federal government, are a completely justified measure. “Shouldn’t there be regional quotas? After all, everyone will want to come to where it is cozy and warm. But we are not going to create a continuous resort area on the territory of the country,” the deputy told a Vremya Novostei correspondent.

Human rights activists who help migrants and resettlers settle down and legalize themselves in Russia, on the contrary, believe that “strict quotas in our country are a reason for corruption.” “No matter how these quotas are revised, people who are really waiting for them do not get them,” Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the organization “Migration and Law,” complained in an interview with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. “It’s very sad that the state wants to regulate everything in the world.” Well, who is now stopping a Muscovite from becoming a janitor or a builder? Nobody. But they don’t come.”

Yulia KHOMCHENKO