Labor shortage could lead to amnesty for deported migrants

Artyom Kiryanov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, announced this during a press conference at NSN.

According to him, according to official estimates of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, now the industry is short of 171,000 people, plus about 90,000 are short of housing and communal services:

“According to experts, this figure should be multiplied by two. That is, in reality, the Russian labor market lacks about half a million workers. Now these half a million workers cannot be taken in the subjects of the Russian Federation. <...> Therefore, an amnesty for those labor migrants who did not commit any criminal offenses on the territory of the Russian Federation, but were expelled for administrative reasons (for example, due to several fines for violating traffic rules) and they were denied entry to the Russian Federation, is quite possible “.

Of course, according to the deputy, the lack of workers is primarily a problem of such megacities as Moscow:

“Now the share of migrants at various facilities in the capital ranges from 20% to 60%. Since 2016, the number of foreign labor force has decreased by more than 2 times. On behalf of the Mayor of Moscow, the capital’s construction complex has been working since 2021 on a program for the gradual replacement of migrants by specialists of Russian origin. They may not be Muscovites, but at least with our Russian passport. But this work of replacement cannot be carried out overnight. Such a cycle with training and attracting specialists will take several years.”

According to Artyom Kiryanov, the problem with the shortage of personnel has worsened during the pandemic:

“Then the regime for moving across the border was revised, and accordingly, in February 2022, according to the National Association of Builders, the industry across Russia lacked about 1.5-2 million foreign labor migrants. At the same time, according to the data of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of the Russian Federation, we see a deficit, which is estimated at about 260 thousand people (171 thousand in construction and 90 thousand in housing and communal services. — S.I.). But the question is what to do with this deficit right now.”

If this problem is not solved in the near future, then, as Artyom Kiryanov emphasized, the Russian construction complex may begin to slow down the pace of development, which is the key to the growth of the entire economy:

“After all, the construction complex is not only those people who are directly employed at the construction site, and not only the money that is directly invested in construction. Probably, for every ruble spent on construction, two more – this is what ensures the construction. Probably, for every person who is directly involved in construction, there are 5-7 more of the related industries that provide this construction. This is especially true in the current situation of import substitution, in a situation where we are striving for technological sovereignty.”

According to another participant in the press conference, President of the Federation of Migrants of Russia Vadim Kozhenov, the proposal to hold an amnesty for deported migrants is likely to be received with hostility by the main part of the indigenous population:

“Unfortunately it is so. I am very pleased that this amnesty is now being discussed at the State Duma level, because, in my opinion, this is good and right. We in Russia already have quite a lot of experience with amnesties: let me remind you that the first one was in 2017. Then about 100 thousand citizens of Tajikistan and a large number of citizens of Moldova were amnestied. Later, in different years, we had a number of amnesties, but I would call them inferior. They concerned only those people who had already been banned from entering the Russian Federation, and this ban was forgiven, amnestied. At the peak of these “prohibited” people, there were more than 1 million people, then in different years they were given some amnesty, but still, the list of “prohibited ones” is regularly replenished with tens of thousands a year, because the legislation is very imperfect. The only amnesty that I would call real was held from July 15 to September 30, 2021. It concerned those who were here; those who once came to the Russian Federation, then lost their legal status, because they could not renew their registration for one reason or another. These people lived illegally for years, and when this amnesty was finally announced in 2021, they managed to get about 1 million people out of the “shadow”. After this amnesty, we immediately saw an increase in the number of issued patents, an increase in personal income tax, that is, all the positive aspects for the state that we constantly talk about. Therefore, if there really is a conversation about another amnesty, I think that first of all we need to help those who are already here.”

At the same time, as Vadim Kozhenov emphasized, it is impossible for these amnesties to be carried out constantly, otherwise people will think that, despite the violations, they will soon be forgiven anyway. In his opinion, all illegal immigrants should be brought out of the shadows, given the opportunity to live and work normally, reform the work of the currently imperfect system of migration registration, and after that, be as strict as possible against violators of the law.

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo KGH