DOCSLIB.ORG

Destination Russia: Migration Policy Reform and Reality

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Destination Russia: Migration Policy Reform and Reality In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2006, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 289-299. Delia Rahmonova-Schwarz Destination Russia: Migration Policy Reform and Reality Introduction Russia currently finds itself in a unique historical period in which mi- gration policy can become an important means of providing economic and demographic security and helping to sustain its development.1 Such were the concluding words at a conference on labour migration held in St. Petersburg on 1-2 July 2004. Two years later, on 30 June 2006, the State Duma approved the draft law “On Migration Registration of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Russian Federation”. Following the Federation Council’s approval on 6 July 2006 and President Vladimir Putin’s endorse- ment on 18 July 2006, it will come into force on 15 January 2007. Migration has, in the meantime, become one of the most hotly debated issues in the pol- itical arena. President Putin, in his annual speech to the Federal Assembly on 11 May 2006, pointed out that the country was facing a demographic crisis and stressed the urgent need to introduce reforms in migration legislation to reverse current demographic trends.2 His advisor, Viktor Ivanov, said that he was concerned by “the African death rate and the European birth rate”3 in Russia. Indeed, the Russian population has been in constant decline since 1986 with a natural loss of 0.7 to 0.9 million since 1993. Besides creating the ne- cessary social conditions for improving the birth rate, the policy paper of the Russian Federation for the time period from the present until 2015, welcomes legislative measures that would facilitate registration and employment of for- eign citizens.4 The Social-Patriotic Party Rodina (“Motherland”) and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) voted against the draft law in March. Rodina criticized it as “an effective instrument to supplant the 1 Irina Ivakhnyuk, Zaklyuchitelnyi otchet mezhdunarodnogo seminara “Perspektivy trud- ovoi migratsii v Rossii i ee regionakh: prava migrantov v kontekste ekonomicheskogo i demograficheskogo razvitiya” [Concluding report on the international seminar “Perspec- tives on Labour Migration in Russia and Its Regions: Migrants’ Rights in the Context of Economic and Demographic Development”], p. 3, available online at http://www.uef.ru/ rus/chairs/stat/seminar2004.doc (author’s translation). 2 Cf. Putin’s State-of-the-Nation Address, at: http://www.fond-opk.orthodoxy.ru/publ/publ _view.php?publid=39 (in Russian). 3 Excerpts of Viktor Ivanov’s statements at the round table organized by the State Duma in April 2006. Material provided by Stringer Information Agency, at http://www.stringer.ru (in Russian; author’s translation). 4 See the Demographic Policy Paper of the Russian Federation for the time period until 2015, presented on 15 February 2001 at the meeting of the government of the Russian Federation, at: http://www.akdi.ru/ECONOM/akdi.HTM (in Russian). 289 In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2006, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 289-299. indigenous population”.5 However, the opposition between pro-Putin forces, who supported the adoption of liberalization measures, and the group known as the Faction of Opposition Parties (i.e. Communists and Patriots), reflects only one side of a much larger picture. Beyond domestic politics there is in- deed an entire web of disputes relating to the management of migration in Russia. These range from violations of labour migrants’ rights by their em- ployers and the police, via the growing racist and xenophobic sentiments of the indigenous population, to recent foreign policy trends that have contrib- uted to the revision of legislation concerning migrants. The Russian Feder- ation has indeed acknowledged that it needs to carry out a significant reform of migration law to solve the economic, demographic, and social problems it now faces. With the new law on migration possibly on the way to coming into force, policy makers, international organizations, local analysts, and the media have raised the issue of Russia becoming no less an immigration country than the United States. Yet quite apart from the controversial reasons behind these reforms, to what extent are indigenous Russians willing to ac- cept foreigners? Can the legalization of a foreign labour force really benefit employers that are focused on maximizing profit? This paper takes a closer look at the mechanisms behind the Russian government’s intention to imple- ment measures to facilitate the regulation of migration. In doing so, it con- siders the realities of migration management and the repercussions that cur- rent policy reforms might have. The case of labour migrants from Central Asia will be the main focus. “Russia is Not a Way Station” – Attempts to Manage Undocumented Migration Labour migration from Central Asia to Russia has increased since the end of the 1990s as the Russian economy started to recover. As a result of the eco- nomic transition process, the infrastructure and education and health systems in the states of Central Asia deteriorated, causing labourers from the agricul- tural and construction sectors as well as professionals to migrate to Russia in search of work. Russia, now the second most popular destination for migrants following the United States, has an estimated 10.2 million undocumented mi- grants.6 There is no reliable information on the composition of the migrant population by ethnic origin, however, Caucasian and Central Asian citizens are believed to constitute the bulk of the immigrants to Russia, while Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Belarusians also represent a considerable seg- 5 Andrei Arkhipov, Pomoshchnik prezidenta Viktor Ivanov podvel chertu pod migrantami [Presidential Advisor Viktor Ivanov Draws the Bottom Line for Migrants], at: http.//www.stringer.ru/publication.mhtml?Part=37&PubID=5607 (author’s translation). 6 Assessment of the Federal Migration Service. Cf. V Rossii nakhodyatsya bolee 10 mil- lionov nelegalnykh migrantov [More than ten million illegal migrants in Russia], Ria No- vosti, 11 December 2006, at: http://www.rian.ru/society/20061211/56770101.html. 290 In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2006, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 289-299. ment of Russia’s labour market. The demand for cheap labour in sectors such as construction, wholesale and retail trade, municipal and personal services, catering, and public transportation is considered to be the principal factor drawing migrants to Russia. With average economic growth of 6.4 per cent over the past several years, the Russian Federation has attracted millions of migrants from other parts the former Soviet Union. Despite emigration and depopulation, Russia’s policy makers are di- vided about allowing more migration to the country. The Communists and the Social-Patriotic Party raise doubts about the alleged economic benefits. They are anxious that the job market may marginalize Russian citizens and frightened by current levels of foreigners, let alone the continuing influx of migrants from the former USSR. “Prokhodnoi dvor” the Russian word for “way station” has the negative connotation of a terrain with no law or order. “My – ne prokhodnoi dvor” (“We are not a way station”), or “Rossiya – ne prokhodnoi dvor” (“Russia is not a way station”) are among the statements constantly reiterated by politicians, NGOs, the media, and a disgruntled population. The notion that the country could be turned into a lawless place of this kind by illegal migrants and incompetent politicians is also discern- able in the mainstream media. Far right groups such as the Russian Move- ment against Illegal Migrants and Immigrants use anti-migration propaganda to increase support for their nationalist ideologies.7 When considered in the context of the debate on “Fortress Europe”, i.e. the restrictive migration policies of the newly enlarged European Union, Russia’s not-a-way-station discourse might sound relatively welcoming at first.8 As Tatiana Yudina rightly argues, Russia’s demand for foreign labour is similar to that of European countries in the 1960-1970s.9 The current mi- gration legislation has not produced any positive results, and Russia, with heavy dependence on migrant labour to sustain its economy, cannot afford to adopt the same strict migration laws that some Western European states have. Russia is thus unlikely to close its doors to migrants completely. The labour deficit notwithstanding, Russia is still doing too little to adopt appropriate migration policies. In their policy paper to the World Bank, Yuri Andrienko and Sergei Guriev note that Russia still seems to be orienting itself towards the policy designs of the OECD countries that allow limited quota-based mi- gration, which might have a negative impact on the economy. The two 7 See, for example, the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya, at: http://www.sovross.ru/ 2006/06/ 06_4_1.htm, or at: http://www.rednews.ru/article.phtml?id=5222. The Russian National Union party (Russki Obshenatsionalni Soyuz, RONS) has been spreading the same anti- migrant messages. In May 2006, anti-migrant flyers with the words “Duma to Vote for Anti-Russian Law“ were distributed in the metro stations of Moscow. 8 Cf. among others Hans-Joachim Albrecht, Fortress Europe? – Controlling Illegal Immi- gration, in: European Journal of Crime Criminal Law and Justice 1/2002, pp. 1-22, and Stefan Alsher, Knocking at the Doors of “Fortress Europe”. Migration and Border Control in Southern Spain and Eastern Poland, in: CCIS Working Paper Series, Working Paper 126, November 2005, at: http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg126.pdf. 9 Cf. Tatiana N. Yudina, Labour Migration into Russia: The Response of State and Society, in: Current Sociology 4/2005, p. 1. 291 In: IFSH (ed.), OSCE Yearbook 2006, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 289-299. scholars are concerned at the direction being taken by Russian migration policy and note that, since 2002, Russia has had in place migration regula- tions based on those in effect in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands dur- ing the 1990s.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How the Chinese See Russia
    How the Chinese See Russia Bobo Lo December 2010 Russia/NIS Center Ifri is a research center and a forum for debate on major international political and economic issues. Headed by Thierry de Montbrial since its founding in 1979, Ifri is a non-governmental and a non-profit organization. As an independent think tank, Ifri sets its own research agenda, publishing its findings regularly for a global audience. With offices in Paris and Brussels, Ifri stands out as one of the rare French think tanks to have positioned itself at the very heart of European debate. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Ifri brings together political and economic decision-makers, researchers and internationally renowned experts to animate its debates and research activities. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ alone and do not reflect the official views of their institutions. Russia/NIS Center © All rights reserved – Ifri – Paris, 2010 ISBN: 978-2-86592-809-5 IFRI IFRI-Bruxelles 27 RUE DE LA PROCESSION RUE MARIE-THERESE, 21 75740 PARIS CEDEX 15 – FRANCE 1000 BRUXELLES TEL. : 33 (0)1 40 61 60 00 TEL. : 32(2) 238 51 10 FAX : 33 (0)1 40 61 60 60 FAX : 32 (2) 238 51 15 E-MAIL : [email protected] E-MAIL : [email protected] WEBSITE : www.ifri.org B. Lo / Chinese Perceptions of Russia Executive Summary China is in the midst of one of the most remarkable transformations in history. In its search for economic development and industrial modernization, Chinese policy-makers look to the West for their points of reference. Russia, which once offered an alternative model, now stands as an object lesson in what not to do.
    [Show full text]
  • Vietnamese Migrants in Russia in Migrants Vietnamese
    NEW MOBILITIES IN ASIA Hoang Vietnamese Migrants in Russia Lan Anh Hoang Vietnamese Migrants in Russia Mobility in Times of Uncertainty Vietnamese Migrants in Russia New Mobilities in Asia In the 21st century, human mobility will increasingly have an Asian face. Migration from, to, and within Asia is not new, but it is undergoing profound transformations. Unskilled labour migration from the Philippines, China, India, Burma, Indonesia, and Central Asia to the West, the Gulf, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand continues apace. Yet industrialization in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India, the opening of Burma, and urbanization in China is creating massive new flows of internal migration. China is fast becoming a magnet for international migration from Asia and beyond. Meanwhile, Asian students top study-abroad charts; Chinese and Indian managers and technicians are becoming a new mobile global elite as foreign investment from those countries grows; and Asian tourists are fast becoming the biggest travellers and the biggest spenders, both in their own countries and abroad. These new mobilities reflect profound transformations of Asian societies and their relationship to the world, impacting national identities and creating new migration policy regimes, modes of transnational politics, consumption practices, and ideas of modernity. This series brings together studies by historians, anthropologists, geographers, and political scientists that systematically explore these changes. Series Editor Pál Nyíri, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Editorial
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamics of Maritime Terrorist Threats to Russia and the Government's
    Dynamics of Maritime Terrorist Threats to Russia and the Government’s Response Simon Saradzhyan * Introduction Russia has been the victim of a number of horrendous terrorist attacks at the hands of endemic actors, such as networks of radical separatists and terrorists based in the North Caucasus. These networks have bombed a Coast Guard residential complex and a pa- rade at a Caspian Sea town, killing dozens; they have plotted to hijack one atomic submarine and claimed responsibility for sinking another; and their supporters seized a vessel with Russian passengers on board and threatened to blow it up. Some groups within these networks have already crossed the moral threshold between conventional and catastrophic terrorism by staging such horrendous attacks as the hostage taking in Beslan, in which 331 people, half of them children, were killed in 2004. The hostage- taking raids on the Beslan school and on Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater in 2002 demon- strated the formidable capabilities of these networks in planning and executing com- plex attacks, which involved profound knowledge of the practical flaws and organiza- tional deficiencies of Russia’s counter-terrorism and law-enforcement system. Attack- ers in both cases included individuals willing to die in the course of the attacks. The Russian authorities have dealt these networks a number of serious blows thanks to the strengthening of the Russian state and its security and law-enforcement appara- tus, as well as to the increased involvement of local populations, including former re- bels, in counter-insurgency and policing efforts. They have also significantly improved the security of critical facilities of land-based infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons facilities.
    [Show full text]
  • “Hive” Terrorism: Terrorist Acts Or Nected Network of Individuals and Groups Who Violent Hate Crimes Committed by a Spontane- Reject U.S
    AUTHOR Christian Michelides Police in Vienna separate “Fight Against the Right” and PEGIDA (“Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident”) activists during a February 2015 demonstration. 84 | FEATURES PRISM 6, NO. 1 Right-Wing Extremism and Terrorism in Europe Current Developments and Issues for the Future BY DANIEL KOEHLER urope has experienced a revival of militant right-wing extremist groups, networks, and incidents in recent years, with a surge of anti-immigration and Islamophobic violence, as Ewell as anti-government attacks and assaults on political opponents, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals. Although not as significant as in Europe, the United States has also seen an upsurge in political violence considered to be “right-wing extremist” in nature (for example, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, racist, or anti-government sovereign citizen). For the international audi- ence, only a few of these incidents gained broad media attention; right-wing extremist attacks are seen mostly as isolated events when compared with other attacks, such as those by Islamist extremist terrorists. In Germany, a right-wing terrorist group calling itself the National Socialist Underground was discovered in 2011. Despite having assassinated at least 10 people and com- mitted 2 bombings over the course of almost 14 years, it had gone undetected. That same year, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in a bomb attack in Oslo and a mass shooting in Utøya, Norway. In the United States, white supremacist Michael Page shot and killed six people and wounded four others in an attack against a Wisconsin Sikh temple in August 2012. Only one day after Charles Kurzman had argued in the New York Times that right-wing terrorism might be the most severe security threat in the United States, Dylann Roof killed nine people in his shooting rampage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015.1 Similar events have been recorded in many Western European countries, as well as in Russia and Eastern Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Internal Communication Clearance Form
    NATIONS UNIES UNITED NATIONS HAUT COMMISSARIAT DES NATIONS UNIES OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROCEDURES SPECIALES DU SPECIAL PROCEDURES OF THE CONSEIL DES DROITS DE L’HOMME HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance REFERENCE: AL G/SO 214 (106-10) G/SO 214 (78-15) RUS 2/2014 20 February 2014 Excellency, We have the honour to address you in our capacities as Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 17/12 and 16/33. In this connection, we would like to bring to the attention of your Excellency’s Government information we have received concerning the series of xenophobic and racist attacks against migrants that took place in different regions of Russia in the last quarter of 2013. According to the information received: Attacks against non-Russians by ultranationalists took place in Russia in the weeks after Yegor Shcherbakov was allegedly stabbed to death on the night of between 9 and10 October 2013 by a Muslim migrant from the North Caucasus in Moscow’s Biryulyovo district. The source indicates that a significant far-right event took place in the Biryulyovo district in Western Moscow immediately following Shcherbakov’s murder. Inhabitants of the region of Biryulyovo district organized a demonstration and demanded an investigation. Manifestations in Biryulyovo District and following events Allegedly, Nationalist supporters seized the opportunity to make the murder an ethnic issue, announcing that on 15 October 2013 they would hold an action in "response to Kurban Bayram" (as the major Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha is generally called in Russia).
    [Show full text]
  • Trading Places 140
    Trading Places ARIZONA MARKET: INTER-EtHNIC COLLABORatION IN BRCˇKO Not far from the north Bosnian town of Brcˇko lies one of the most notorious marketplaces in south-eastern Europe: Arizona Market. It has 2,500 stalls on an area covering 40 hectares, receives 3 million visitors a year and employs directly or indirectly an estimated 100,000 people. Apart from these statistics, what distinguishes the market depends on participants’ perspectives and interests, and these can differ considerably. For some, it is a model of a multi-ethnic com- munity, for others it is the largest open-air shopping mall in the Balkans, while still others experience it as hell on earth. The differences in perspective depend upon which of the numerous stages and transformations of what is commonly Trading Places called Arizona Market one is referring to. The strip of land occupied by the present Arizona Market is a part of the war zone that was fiercely fought over by Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian Muslim units because of its strategic position after Bosnia-Herzegovina had left the federal state of Yugoslavia in 1991. Besides the entities set out in the Dayton Peace Accords of November 1995, i.e. the Serbian Republic and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the disputed territory around the town of Brcˇko, whose future was to be decided in an international arbitra- tion process, was granted special status. It was placed under the direct supervision of a special supervisor from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) of the inter- national community of states for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
    [Show full text]
  • Building Belonging in Muslim Moscow: Identity and Group Practices in the Post-Soviet Capital
    Building Belonging in Muslim Moscow: Identity and Group Practices in the Post-Soviet Capital Charles Aprile Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Bachelor of the Arts Thesis Advisor: Dr. Maya Nadkarni Swarthmore College ABSTRACT Due to the scale of migration that took place after 1991, Moscow is both an ideal and unique space in studies of race, ethnicity and group identity in the of Post-Soviet sphere. Moscow is unique in its history as the center of the multinational Soviet nation-state, as well as its renewed social and economic centrality to much of the former Soviet Union today. The city's layered and contradictory spaces bear testament to how the changing power relations of post-socialist transition affect the embeddedness of group identity in the city's daily life. Due to this layered past, Moscow has a pronounced lack of ethnic or racial residential segregation. This reality necessitates novel frameworks to explain how social belonging and exclusion are spatially inscribed into Moscow's urban fabric. This study uses historical context and ethnographic, interview and participant-observation among Muslim migrants to understand the mechanisms that reproduce, reify, complicate, and splinter Muslim group identities in the Russian capital. In "migrant markets," the findings of this research indicate how Muslims use the spaces to engage in workplace practices that serve to validate their varied cultural, collective and individual identities. At the same time, the stratified occupational structures in markets serve to reify Russian stereotypes against migrants and categorize them as "other." In observing religious activity in Moscow, this study found a serious disconnect between government-approved religious leaders and their supposed constituencies.
    [Show full text]
  • Law and Order Do Not Always Go Together. Vigilantism As Citizens Attempt to Enforce Order Outside the Law Is Rising
    “Law and order do not always go together. Vigilantism as citizens attempt to enforce order outside the law is rising. Comprehensive studies about the phe- nomenon have been lacking. The 17 case studies and the conceptual and com- parative discussion by the editors go a long way to fill the void. A must read in these times of rising populism and xenophobia.” - Prof. em. Alex P. Schmid, Editor-in-Chief of ‘Perspectives on Terrorism’ and former Officer-in-Charge of the Terrorism Prevention Branch of UNODC. “Theoretically astute, empirically sound, this volume is the authoritative source on the growing phenomena of vigilantism around the world. This study is essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the changing nature of coercion, and the shifting relations of social and political order in the 21st century.” - James Sheptycki, York University, Canada. “Vigilantism poses a serious threat to democracy. It is therefore an important, yet understudied phenomenon in criminology. This edited volume raises important issues regarding the conditions under which different kinds of vigilantism emerge. Using case studies from different countries, this edited volume provides challenging new insights which are of importance to both academics and policy makers.” - Prof. Lieven Pauwels, Ghent University, Belgium. “This book is richly researched and extremely timely. The spread of vigilantism in our increasingly fractured world should stimulate debate about the nature and significance of state power, whether ‘private’ vigilante actors are in fact detached from their governments, and when right-wing vigilantism becomes a necessary component of state Fascist operations.” - Prof. Martha K. Huggins, Tulane University (emerita), USA.
    [Show full text]
  • The State and Transnational Organized Crime: a Case Study Analysis of Criminal Opportunities in the Russian Federation and the United States
    THE STATE AND TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME: A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE UNITED STATES YULIYA G. ZABYELINA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY TRENTO, ITALY 2013 2 EXAMINING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Thesis Supervisor DR. ANDREA DI NICOLA UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO Facoltà di Giurisprudenza Via Verdi 53 – 38122 Trento, Italy Email: [email protected] External Examiners DR. GEORGIOS ANTONOPOULOS TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY School of Social Sciences and Law Middlesbrough, Tees Valley TS1 3BA United Kingdom Email: [email protected] DR. BARBARA VETTORI UNIVERSITÀ CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE Facoltà di Scienze Politiche e Sociali L.go Gemelli, 1 – 20123 Milano, Italy Email: [email protected] 3 © COPYRIGHT 2013 BY YULIYA G. ZABYELINA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4 ABSTRACT The concern with the role of failing and post-conflict states as incubators of transnational organized crime (TOC) was a recurrent theme in research in the 1990s. Because of deep- seated institutional failures, instability and impoverishment, weak states were considered as crime-facilitative environments, in which criminal organizations were provided with rewarding criminal opportunities and a high degree of immunity. The resilience of properly functioning states has often been taken for granted in mainstream accounts of TOC. Fragmented but nevertheless important empirical data provide evidence that TOC has established in many countries around the world irrespective of high levels of economic development and outstanding governance. This dissertation studies the nexus between state features and TOC. In order to do so, a qualitative analysis of the formation of criminal opportunities within different types of states is offered.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Borders, Closed Minds Russia’S Changing Migration Policies: Liberalization Or Xenophobia?
    Open Borders, Closed Minds Russia’s Changing Migration Policies: Liberalization or Xenophobia? Caress Schenk Abstract: Russia’s choice to pursue restrictive immigration policies is counterintui- tive, given the acute need for labor migrants. This analysis argues that in response to pervasive xenophobia, the state has embarked on a labor migration policy agenda that does not reflect the demographic reality of Russia’s rapidly declining working age population. Institutional and societal manifestations of xenophobia work together to demand and justify restrictive immigration policies. The state provokes and reinforces these nationalist attitudes through the media and discriminatory policies and prac- tices such as ethnic profiling and allowing extremist groups to operate with impunity. The literature on migration policy systematically neglects illiberal polities, making this discussion linking the policy input of xenophobia to restrictive policy outputs a unique contribution to the ongoing study of how states respond to immigration.1 Keywords: demographic crisis, immigration policy, labor migration, nationalism, Russia, xenophobia ew migration rules in Russia, enacted on January 15, 2007, are part of an ongoing N effort to address the current demographic crisis. In a period of massive population decline, the state has made policy efforts to create balanced immigration by enticing Rus- sian “compatriots” while limiting migrants from the former Soviet countries of the Com- monwealth of Independent States (CIS). While CIS citizens are not required to have visas to travel to the Russian Federation, the 2007 legislation introduced a quota system limit- ing the number of work permits available to these migrants.2 Quota levels have decreased every year since their institution, shrinking incrementally from 6 million in 2007 to 1.3 million in 2010.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosstat Map of Retail Sales by Region
    ITC Russian Market Study RosStat Map of Retail Sales by Region ITC Russian Market Study Q1 2010 1 ITC Russian Market Study CONTENTS Executive Summary ........................................................................ ......................... 5 1.1 Background 1.2 Apparel & Textile Market Scale 1.3 Tariff / Non-Tariff and Trade Agreements 1.4 Entry Strategies 1.5 Methodology 2. Market structure and characteristics: a macro view ................ ......................... 7 2.1 Market size and prices 2.2 Imports of Textiles and Garments 2.3 Russian Exports of Textiles and Garments 2.4 Market Share Domestic vs. Import 2.4.1 Textiles 2.4.2 Apparel 2.5 Macro Changes in the Russian Textile & Clothing Market 2.5.1 Import developments over the last 5 years 3. Analysis of tariff structure of imports by product group ......... ....................... 19 3.1 Russia’s WTO accession process 4. Non-Tariff Requirements in the Market ..................................................................... 22 4.1 Overview 4.2 Packaging & labeling requirements 4.3 Specific domestic business practices 4.4 Overview of Logistics 4.5 Shipping Requirements: 4.6 Outer Packing: 2 ITC Russian Market Study 5. Expected Macro developments (market prospects) ................. ....................... 27 5.1 Apparel 5.2 Textiles 6. Russian Textile & Clothing Market: a micro view ..................... ....................... 28 6.1 Structure & Sales Channels Overview 6.2 Key Participants in the Russian Apparel Market 6.3 Recent Developments at the Retailer Level 6.4
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Introduction: Russian Societal Transformation and Migrant Workers in the Shadow Economy
    FINAL DRAFT This chapter has been published in Migrant Workers in Russia – Global challenges of the shadow economy in societal transformation. Edited by Anna-Liisa Heusala and Kaarina Aitamurto. Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group, 2017, 1-15. 1 Introduction: Russian societal transformation and migrant workers in the shadow economy Anna-Liisa Heusala In the post-Soviet period, Russian societal transformation has been shaped by globalised phenomena and interactions, and this interconnectedness has cut across traditional spheres of interests and influenced the reconstruction of new ones. Globalisation has contributed to the development of various new mechanisms to follow the movement of people, goods and communication across borders. One important unintended consequence of globalisation in Russia has been the persistence of a large-scale shadow economy. The human security dimensions (Kaldor et al. 2007; Laszlo 1999) of the shadow economy have become inextricably linked to many key processes of Russian societal transformation at both the domestic and international levels. The shadow economy connects questions of globalised economic competitiveness involving huge interests inside the Russian market with internal security and foreign policy goals of a regional security complex (Buzan 1991) in Central Asia. Various definitions for the shadow economy exist (Gerxhani 2004), underlining different sides of the phenomenon. Here, the shadow economy is the segment of the economy where transactions generally leave no formal trace (Nardo 2011: 50), where an activity may be spontaneous but often has become a more or less institutionalised custom. The shadow economy includes all economic activities that contribute to the officially calculated GDP but are unregistered (Schneider and Enste 2000) to avoid legal obligations in the production process.
    [Show full text]