“Officials received instructions to urgently take action” – Kommersant FM

The State Duma begins work on tightening immigration legislation. As the deputies themselves note, there are a lot of initiatives today. After the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the police are conducting enhanced checks of visitors, ministries and departments are also preparing their proposals on how to improve the situation in this area. Among the proposed measures is the creation of a centralized operating company to attract foreign labor. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize fears that there will be no one to work on domestic construction sites.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation presented proposals for improving migration policy. The point is to establish a single state operating company for the organized attraction of labor resources from abroad. It will be called beautifully – “Work in Russia”, a kind of international employment agency. We will not discuss all the pros and cons of this proposal; there were many of them, and it seems that this is far from the last.

In general, we can say that officials received instructions from their superiors: to urgently take measures in order to restore order in the migration sphere. Another cynic will insert a caustic remark, saying, for the umpteenth time. Yes, we have to agree – indeed, not for the first time, and it’s even difficult to say how many times. No, measures are, of course, being taken, demands are increasing. But, as we see, they talk about this a lot in calm times, not necessarily when something so bad happens. However, the cart doesn’t just stand still, it moves, but, unfortunately, it never gets where it should.

True, there is an old proven method – police raids on various construction sites, marginal hostels, “rubber apartments” and other similar places. And now we hear reports: so and so many were detained, of these, violators were identified in such and such a number, all of them were promptly deported. And it’s not just migrants who are being checked. Not to be unfounded: Fontanka writes that the St. Petersburg police have identified dishonest teachers. Look what’s going on for 15 thousand rubles. They issue visitors with diplomas stating that they have successfully passed exams in Russian history, basic legislation and the Russian language. Without this, they won’t officially hire you. Cases have been opened, it will be discouraging from now on.

However, it is easy to guess that raids cannot be carried out forever. Sooner or later the passions will subside, and then everything will go as usual. Although, as we see, someone is unlucky – if you got caught, then answer. The problem is that if completely draconian measures are introduced, migrants will stop coming to Russia. It is a big mistake to think that there is nowhere else to earn money except here. And who in this case will work, take out the garbage, build houses? And who should I ask if something happens, who should I appoint as a last resort? No, you can’t live in Russia without migrants.

It would be possible, for example, to treat them as people, equal rights with Russian workers, pay decent “white” wages, then, you see, there would be fewer temptations to commit crimes.

But let’s not indulge in further speculation, because all these measures lie on the surface. The main difficulty is that when the whole body is sick, it is very difficult to cure one part of it. This requires an integrated approach. For example, somehow we need to get rid of corruption and many, many other things. Or take out the garbage yourself, build houses, or at least litter less, but it doesn’t work out somehow. And why does this happen? It’s strange, by golly.

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