FinExpertiza: the influx of labor migrants to Russia increased by a third in 2022

At the end of 2022, the number of foreign citizens who came to Russia to work reached 3.47 million. This is a third or 871 thousand people more than a year earlier, reports FinExpertiza. According to her, more than 90% of labor migrants in total came from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

According to the study, the influx of labor migrants from Uzbekistan increased most of all last year – by 35.1% or 377.7 thousand people. The number of people who came to work from Tajikistan also increased (by 51.8% or 336.7 thousand people), Kyrgyzstan (17.7%, 84.6 thousand), Kazakhstan (118.3%, 62 thousand), Azerbaijan (21.1%, 16.6 thousand), Vietnam (an increase of more than nine times, up to 8 thousand), Moldova (87.7%, 4.1 thousand), Turkey (12.9%, 2 thousand), Turkmenistan (an increase of almost 100 times, up to 1.6 thousand) and China (12.2%, 1.3 thousand).

At the same time, less labor migrants began to come to Russia from Armenia (the number decreased by 8.7%, to 15.6 thousand people), Ukraine (52.3%, to 8.3 thousand), Serbia (19.8% , up to 880), Germany (19.3%, up to 752), France (22.2%, up to 548), Italy (20.8%, up to 541), USA (29.5%, up to 410), Czech Republic (47.8%, up to 361), Austria (36.4%, up to 341) and the Netherlands (37%, up to 275 people).

During the year, the number of facts of migration registration of foreigners, taking into account the renewal of registrations and re-registration, amounted to 11.8 million. More than 40% of registrations were in Moscow and the Moscow region. Labor migrants were also often registered in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Krasnodar Territory, Irkutsk Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Amur Region, Primorsky Territory, Tatarstan and Krasnoyarsk Territory. Foreigners considered the Nenets Autonomous Okrug the least attractive for work, where they registered 2,000 times at the place of residence.

In November 2022 the government contributed to the State Duma a draft law on the reorganization of migration registration. It expands the use of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the services of the departmental Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Passport and Visa Service” and the specialized Moscow “migration” MFC for processing documents for labor migrants and registering citizens at the place of residence. The government believes that this will simplify the process of legalizing the entry of migrants to work in Russia. However, the President’s Human Rights Council sent a sharply critical response to the bill.

Details – in the material “Migrant Rights Council”.

Laura Keffer