Media Whine as Russia Cracks Down on Foreign Labor

Don’t expect La Cesspool Grande (Wash. DC) would do likewise, especially with a despicable POS we have in the presidency.

A Problem Crossing Borders

By Daniel Sershen

Recent changes to Russian labor migration policy have long been overdue. But while they are a step in the right direction, the new rules may have unintended consequences that would damage the economy and send negative ripples through the economies of its neighbors.

Russia is heavily dependent on foreign labor, the vast majority of which
comes from these countries. With its population declining at an alarming
rate — falling at roughly 750,000 people per year — Russia needs to
attract migrants to forestall a drastic labor shortage.

And the migrants need Russia. This is particularly true for the poorest
former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Moldova.
Conservative estimates put the number of Kyrgyz workers in Russia at
500,000, or about 10 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s population, and some
experts say it is closer to 1 million. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also
send high percentages of their workers abroad.

Anyone who lives in Central Asia has noticed the signs of a population
on the move: job seekers lined up at transportation hubs, waiting grimly
for the plane, train or bus that will shuttle them north. The flip side
is the huge amount of money the migrants send back. According to an IMF
position paper, overall remittances in Tajikistan amount to at least 20
percent and perhaps as much as 50 percent of the country’s gross
domestic product, the vast majority coming from Russia.

The effects in Russia are equally dramatic. A recent World Bank study
ranked Russia’s immigrant population as the second largest in the world,
surpassed only by the United States. Non-citizens dominate whole sectors
of the Russian labor force, including outdoor markets and many other
categories of unskilled work.

The majority of migrants from what Russians refer to as the “near
abroad” benefit from visa-free travel, but Russia’s labyrinthine
bureaucracy has so far deterred most from getting the proper labor
registration. In January, Federal Migration Service chief Konstantin
Romodanovsky told Ekho Moskvy radio that fewer than 1 million of an
estimated 11 million migrants were working in the country legally.

The benefits of remaining off the books are clear: The workers can evade
taxes and avoid a long and likely losing battle for registration with
the bureaucracy, while employers get cheap labor. But undocumented
workers have little recourse when their bosses, law enforcement
officials or others decide to take advantage of their vulnerability.

The package of new legislation and decrees that came into force in
January has the potential to change the situation dramatically. Quotas
for foreign laborers in Russia have been expanded significantly, and
huge fines will be levied on employers who hire undocumented workers.
Meanwhile, the process of registering and obtaining a work permit has
been made much easier. Weighed against these positives is one major
drawback: a ban on foreign nationals working in the country’s open-air
markets, which is to come into full effect April 1.

Overall the changes should be welcomed as a good-faith attempt to fix a
broken system. But xenophobia and political considerations have
determined some aspects of the new policy, and the results will hurt
both Russia and the countries from which most of the migrant workers come.

The market ban is part of a trend of growing intolerance; a populist
move intended to placate elements in society that would rather have
immigrants out of sight and mind. Moreover, if fully enforced, it would
lead to higher prices in many markets, as employers switch from migrants
to more costly domestic labor. Even now, markets have curtailed
activities and even closed in some cities, the public relations manager
for the Tsentraziya migrant support group, Nurbek Atambayev, said last week.

The damage will be greater for sending countries. Concrete numbers are
hard to come by, but Aygul Ryskulova, head of Kyrgyzstan’s Migration and
Employment Committee, told the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
that the changes were likely to leave about 100,000 Kyrgyz unemployed,
and figures for Kyrgyzstan’s neighbors are likely similar. It is not yet
clear how market workers are reacting to the ban; some may find jobs in
other sectors, while others may continue to work illegally or even seek
Russian citizenship. But a significant number can be expected to return
home to fragile economies that have little capacity to absorb the influx.

One of the unintended ripple effects caused by the ban is a copycat
Kyrgyz law that forbids foreigners from working in Kyrgyzstan’s own
markets starting in April, a move expected to hit the many Chinese
merchants operating in the country’s bazaars. Kyrgyz officials have
connected their ban directly to the Russian example, saying they hope to
open up employment opportunities for their compatriots coming home from
Russia.

Even the obvious improvements in the laws could prove double-edged. Many
labor migrants are unaware of how the changes in the registration rules
will affect them, which opens the door to their exploitation. Word is
spreading of scams in which unscrupulous employers try to extort money
from laborers, such as by telling them they must pay a steep fee to get
registered.

Another potentially ominous consequence is the increased politicization
of migration policy. As the labor market seems likely to become more
regulated, countries of origin have begun lobbying for a greater
allocation of slots for their citizens. There is a danger that the
Russian approach to labor migration may become as politicized as its
energy policy, with officials allocating preferential quotas to Russia’s
allies and punishing those with whom it disagrees. Such moves, although
by no means unprecedented in Russia or elsewhere in the world, would
further expose foreign workers to the vagaries of international politics.

Improving on the current policy should not be particularly difficult.
Lifting the ban on foreign laborers in markets would be a good start,
along with raising the overall quota of 6 million to a figure that more
closely reflects the actual number of migrants in the country. Perhaps
most important, an extensive information campaign will have to be
conducted to make sure workers know how the changes affect them.

Russia’s labor migration policy does not need to be a zero-sum game; a
few adjustments can bring benefits to both sides of this complex equation.

Daniel Sershen is a freelance journalist based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/02/07/006.html

http://www.shankradio.com/