Translated material
Citizenship for diploma
The Federal Migration Service hopes to involve students from the CIS in the program for the return of compatriots
It seems that this year Russia will not be able to boast of a massive return of former compatriots to their historical homeland . At least, as Yevgeny Manyatkin, head of the department for compatriot affairs of the Federal Migration Service of Russia, told reporters yesterday, no more than 4% of the country’s regions are still participating in the program, which involves the allocation of many billions of rubles for the repatriation of Russians from abroad. Therefore, the Federal Migration Service, which is responsible for the program for the return of compatriots, is today trying to expand the list of potential “returnees” to include foreigners who will be able to obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified scheme.“We are developing measures to specify a state program, to create mechanisms that would allow highly qualified specialists who once left the country to be resettled to us,” explained Mr. Manyatkin. According to him, out of 2 thousand returning compatriots, no more than 30% have higher education. The experience of the first year of the state program showed that the age of repatriates, as a rule, is closer to retirement age. The FMS expects to attract mainly specialists with good diplomas and young people. In particular, according to Mr. Manyatkin, the migration service is developing proposals to attract entrepreneurs to the program who would like to open their own business in Russia, foreign students studying at our universities, and citizens of other countries serving under contract in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
He recalled that now the main criterion for participation in the program is the availability of a vacant job in a particular region and the desire of the repatriate to take it. According to the Federal Migration Service, over the course of a year and a half, more than 40 thousand compatriots turned to the consular offices of the Russian Foreign Ministry and were not averse to returning, but only 9 thousand of them “decided on their place of residence and the specific conditions of their participation in the program.”
As Vadim Gustov, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on CIS Affairs, told Vremya Novostey, by the end of the year, legislators expect many rational proposals from the FMS that would be worth formalizing into law. “The FMS works creatively,” the senator appreciated the ideas of the migration department, “for example, now students from the CIS countries are adapted, know the language, and many find work here. It would be nice to make it easier for them to obtain Russian citizenship.”