The verdict in the case against Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian Aleksey Rudenko was issued on November 8. The pilots were sentenced to 8.5 years in prison. The story made headlines across Russia and, on the following day during a meeting with his supporters in Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev said: “The verdict in this case raises a large number of questions both in terms of the elements of the crime, which our citizen and his colleague from Estonia have been charged with, as well as in terms of how the trial was conducted…I have issued an order to all government structures to closely address the issue: both the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the law enforcement agencies.”
Our response to Tajikistan
However, several days later, the president, while responding to questions from the press in Honolulu, where the APEC summit was being held, was forced to comment on the sudden zeal of law enforcement officers who had begun issuing reports on the detention of illegal immigrants from Tajikistan: “I think that is simply a coincidence.”
Meanwhile, the “coincidences”continued. Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia’s Agriculture Ministry)recently announced a possible ban on imports of agricultural products from Tajikistan. However, this is not the first time the head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), Gennady Onishchenko, has gone this far in a foreign policy attack. He suggested that Tajik migrants may be barred from entering Russia altogether due to medical indicators. According to Rosprirodnadzor (Russia’s environmental protection agency), out of 188 annually deported illegal Tajik immigrants, 40 are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and 103 have tuberculosis. These illnesses alone are sufficient reason for a foreigner’s deportation from Russia.
Another initiative has been recently announced in the State Duma. The head of the Duma’s Labor and Social Policy Committee, Andrey Isayev, wrote on his Twitter page about his introduction of an amendment to the law on insurance premiums. Its purpose is to force employers to pay full premiums for migrant workers to the pension, social and medical insurance funds. “Today, employers pay a social contribution of 10% for migrant workers, and 30% for our employees,” said Isayev. “This creates an incentive for employers to hire migrant workers, leaving them without social protection.” But this, of course, only applies to the legal employment of foreign nationals. Most immigrants from Central Asian states, including Tajikistan, are working in Russia illegally.
During the same press conference in Honolulu, Dmitry Medvedev explained: “If people are found to be present [on the territory of the country] without a permit, it means they either need to be expelled or their legal status needs to be adjusted…I believe that this needs to be done constantly and not only periodically. I had instructed the Migration Service to monitor the general state of affairs concerning the presence of foreign nationals in our country…This problem concerns a large number of people and often leads to aggravation of the situation and clashes which sometimes even occur on ethnic grounds. We cannot turn a blind eye to this.”
Are Russians in danger?
Meanwhile, the estimated number of illegal immigrants in Russia has topped several million. They have a significant impact on the labor market, crime levels, and, as it turns out, health and disease control. Clearly, there are no simple solutions to this complex problem. However, risk assessment and the quest for solutions to the problems associated with migrants are sometimes diametrically opposed.
In essence, closing the borders to a large influx of immigrants is the approach being advocated by the head of the Russkie Movement Supervisory Council, Aleksandr Belov: “Economic progress is characterized by hi-tech developments and innovation. But today, private companies in the construction sector, for example, are attracting a migrant labor force based on the principle that ‘40 Tajiks replace a tower crane.’ Since the days of Ancient Rome, slavery is known to have been ineffective. Meanwhile, we are destroying our labor market. A Tajik citizen living here illegally is able to feed his family back home for $100 a month. Not a single Russian is able to support his family with this amount of money. That is why families are not being created, children are not being born, young people are losing themselves to drinking out of desperation. Migrant workers don’t have competition. But we need to understand that their labor will be cheap only in the beginning. They are grouped into a mono-ethnic community, and we are not – we are starting to lose to them in business and in everyday life. All of this is leading to the fact that the key issue in the near future will be the problem of inter-ethnic relations. These same Tajik citizens are importing heroin as a ‘relocation allowance’. Migrants are not going to the regions where workers are indeed in demand, but to those with a lot of money. Meanwhile, at times, they compensate for their slave wages with street crime. A large number of illegal aliens do not adhere to their, or anyone else’s rules – immigrants from Muslim countries also start drinking, posing a threat to us, our children, and wives; young ‘hungry’ men from mountain villages come to hunt for women. It is simply impossible to think of any integration measures for such a large number of immigrants. Russia is incapable of digesting millions of foreign nationals; our country need first to ensure the wellbeing and safety of its citizens.”
Feeding corruption
Lidia Grafova, chairwoman of the Executive Committee of the International Public Movement “Forum of Migrating Organizations” and member of the Government Commission for Migration Policy, looks at the problem from another angle: “Yes, there are millions of illegals here, and all because their labor benefits corruption, which in turn rules the country. The best way of fighting illegal immigration – is legalization. But our legislation intentionally drives normal hard-working people underground. The rise of hatred toward immigrants is nasty and stupid. But it, in its turn, provides a justification for our inhumane migration policy. So many myths and false accusations toward immigrants… They, of course, are no angels, but they account for 3.6% of all crime in Russia, and not 40% or 50%, as argued by immigration-phobes. ‘They steal our jobs…They take away our money…’ Immigrants create 7% to 10% of Russia’s GDP. And is it their fault that our ‘indigenous’ population does not want to have non-prestigious jobs and so many Russian men are alcoholics? Who will feed our retirees in the near future, if starting this year the number of working-age Russians will be reduced by a million (!) people a year? Without a mass inflow of immigrants, our economy will deteriorate and, literally, each and every one of us will become poorer. For now, Russia is lucky: the children and grandchildren of our yesterday’s compatriots are coming to work here. Yes, they do not speak perfect Russian, but their mentality is still closer to ours than, for example, that of African nationals migrating to Europe. Today, all developed European states are experiencing a demographic crisis. Experts say that a war for migrant workers is soon to break out on the labor market. So while we debate over whether we need immigrants or if we should close our borders, migration flows from the CIS are gradually turning away from Russia to countries where immigrants are better treated.”