Six misconceptions about migrants that seem to be undeniable truths

There is, perhaps, no more mythologized topic in Russian politics than immigration. This is understandable: the fight against “strangers” unites liberals, security guards, and simply rednecks who don’t like and are afraid of strangers. Therefore, no one argues with common myths - they simply operate with them without thinking. They are something like a common language for groups that usually do not understand each other. Language that distorts the essence.

1. Russia is overcrowded with immigrants: it is in the world after the United States. the second largest number of migrants

Technically, this is true: according to a 2013 report by the Population Division of the UN Department of Socio-Economic Affairs, there are 45.8 million foreign-born people living in the United States, and 11 million in Russia. But the level of immigration is much more accurately assessed not in absolute numbers, but as a percentage of the population. In Russia, immigrants make up 7.7% of the country's population. For comparison: in the United Arab Emirates - 83.7%; in Australia – 27.7%; in Kazakhstan – 21.1%; in Ireland - 15.9%; in the USA – 14.3%. Is it possible to talk about the dominance of immigrants in our country? Based on UN statistics, it is impossible.

2. Migrants from Central Asia and Transcaucasia come to Russia because all they need to do is buy a ticket. The introduction of visas for citizens of Central Asian and Transcaucasian countries will reduce the influx of migrants.

Of course not. The US has a visa regime with Mexico, and what does it give? There were 11.7 million undocumented migrants in the United States in 2012, according to Pew Research, and 52% of them were Mexican. This is despite the strict border regime, patrols, and the fight against criminal organizations that supply illegal immigrants to America across the border. The same Mexicans can come to the UK without any visa and live there for six months, but in the United Kingdom there is no problem with Mexican immigrants (the local population there is rather irritated by the Pakistanis, Baltic states and Poles, the migrants are absolutely legal). Illegal immigrants go to relatively rich countries that are closer to them geographically, and not to those where there is no visa regime. Tajiks, who have nowhere to work and nothing to live on at home, will not go to America after the introduction of Russian visas. They will still make their way into Russia. If you have to overcome more difficulties to do this, well, then you have to.

3. Illegal immigration must be actively combated, but legal immigration is not a problem.

In 2009, under the auspices of the European Commission, a major research project called Clandestino was completed, designed to assess the scale of illegal migration. The researchers found that in 2008, a maximum of 3.8 million illegal migrants lived in the 27 EU member states, 0.77% of the total population. The population of European countries, which are increasingly voting for anti-immigrant parties (they performed well in the last elections in Austria and Norway, for example), are irritated mainly by legal migrants, of whom there are much more - according to the UN, about 60 million (and approximately 20.7 million people live in Europe with non-EU passports). In 2011, according to Eurobarometer , 46% of Europeans thought the EU should not encourage external labor immigration to combat demographic problems and labor market distortions, while 42% thought it should. According to a representative survey conducted by British politician and philanthropist Lord Ashcroft this year, 16% of the UK population hates all immigrants, regardless of status. This is just everyday xenophobia.

4. Among migrants, including internal ones, there are those (for example, Caucasians) who, by their defiant behavior, provoke hatred from the locals.

The attitude of the local population towards immigrants is subject to well-studied general patterns. Here are the results of a study based on data from 21 European countries and Israel. The ethnic composition of immigrants varies everywhere. But everywhere, the poorer and less educated the “local” is, the stronger his sense of ethnic threat. Another interesting observation is that the higher the unemployment rate among immigrants, the more they are perceived as a threat. This is not only about the cultural level of xenophobes, but also about competition: immigrants applying for low-skilled and low-paid jobs or even benefits irritate those concerned more. As a result, Tajiks, Azerbaijanis, Nigerians, Pakistanis do not like the same social groups for the same reasons. Nationality has nothing to do with it.

5. Immigrants commit more crimes than natives.

Russian statistics show nothing like this. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs , since the beginning of this year, 1.67 million crimes have been registered in Russia, of which 36,100 were committed by foreigners. This is approximately 2% of the total. It is clear that the nationalist will propose to count both the crimes committed by naturalized citizens of the Russian Federation and Caucasians, who are, so to speak, “original” citizens. Then it probably makes sense to look at Moscow statistics : in 2011, 173,000 crimes were committed in the capital, of which 23,000 were committed by nonresidents and 9,000 by foreigners. That is, in total, “non-locals” accounted for 24% of crimes. But, firstly, in Moscow the share of visitors is especially high: according to calculations by the HSE Institute of Demography, over the past 8 years the population of Moscow has increased due to migration, internal and external, by 1.28 million people (11% of the current population of the capital, according to census). And secondly, in Moscow there are millions of “non-locals” who do not live here, but come, for example, from the region and nearby regions. Among these people are “touring” thieves and bandits. How can they not come here: there is money and crowds here. You can “pull” a high proportion of “ethnic” crime only if you really want to.

6. Immigrants take jobs that natives could apply for.

this year The American lobbying organization Immigration Works, which brings together employers who benefit from hiring foreign workers, published a report , according to which low-skilled immigrants and their supposed “competitors” Americans are competing for completely different jobs. Lobbyists used official data from the Ministry of Labor, so the report can be trusted. In transportation, for example, more American-born workers are employed in low-skilled jobs, and in construction, immigrants are employed; in offices - Americans, and in restaurants - visitors; in healthcare – local, in agriculture – “foreign”. Here, if you look closely, you can see the same picture. Migrants are used in jobs that are not just low-skilled, but require the greatest physical effort and endurance. Locals - on more “clean” ones.

The list of myths could be continued, but there are enough already questioned to formulate a general conclusion. Russia has only relatively recently encountered large-scale immigration, and people here are just beginning to think about it and study it. But they don’t like to study other people’s experiences and are lazy. Meanwhile, our Russian picture is in general similar to the European and American ones. “Over there” everyone has already gone through this. And some of the problems could not be solved - perhaps because it was useless to even try: such is life in relatively rich countries, which by definition are attractive to residents of relatively poor ones. To stop or at least slow down the influx of migrants, Russia needs to stop pumping oil and gas.

The bitter truth: six myths about migrants