Experts believe Russia should modify its immigration policy

Recent xenophobic riots in a Moscow suburb are expected to spark socio-economic problems and may result in changes to Russia’s immigration regulations.

The riots took place following the stabbing of a Russian national in a mainly immigrant district in South Moscow. Immigrants’ stores were looted, and Russian police arrested over 1,000 people, including the alleged killer.

After the event, Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, told reporters that radical decisions on immigration were required, adding his opinion on the increase in social and ethnic tension to those of many federal and local officials. Several human rights groups believe that the government is unwilling or unable to address the difficulties caused by failed immigration policies.

Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s Human Rights ombudsman, has ordered a parliamentary enquiry into the escalating unrest, saying that the problems is complicated and based on corruption. It’s well known that unscrupulous employers are exploiting underpaid immigrant labour, causing anger amongst expat workers.

A top immigration official stated that, out of over a million expat workers in the capital city, less than half are working legally, adding that the situation harms the Russian economy as illegal workers do not pay taxes. Experts believe there are 38 million ‘grey area’ workers in the country, and that the present economic model is creating the problem as it’s beneficial to employees and employers.

A prominent member of the Russian parliament told the media that illegal immigration is of short-term benefit, but will be detrimental over the longer term. The black economy, he said, pushes wages down and scraps the incentive for technological modernisation.

Academics, however, believe that a war against corruption and a change in the present economic model is the only way forward, as business owners cannot survive without cheap labour. Any attempt to solve the problem of illegal immigration, they say, will fail until corruption is tackled and eliminated.