The government will launch a register with data on foreign workers and their employers

The government plans to launch an electronic register with data on foreign workers and their employers staying in the Russian Federation. This will allow real-time tracking of the career paths of migrant workers and provide authorities with detailed information about the labor market. In addition, the state plans to transfer all types of interaction with those coming to work online and is ready to invest in the adaptation of visitors. Given the lack of interest among employers in competing for workers’ salaries, this looks like a “workaround” way to combat the personnel shortage. The only question is what the authorities will want from employers in return.

The government plans to create electronic registers of employers and foreign workers in the Russian Federation, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during a strategic session on migration policy. The sessions, we remind you, are part of the preparation of the updated Concept of State Migration Policy, which is not yet certain. “We need to clearly understand who comes to our country, what professional knowledge and experience these people have, correlate such information with the development of the labor market in specific industries, monitor the dynamics of changes in the situation, and determine where a critical shortage of our own personnel may arise. And, based on the entire complex of data, make informed decisions,” the prime minister noted. He emphasized that as part of the introduction of digital tools in the field of migration management, it is planned to transfer all types of interaction between government agencies and foreign citizens to an online format, and this will also help strengthen control “in such a sensitive area as migration.”

The government submitted to the State Duma a bill on the reorganization of migration registration in the fall of 2022. According to the plan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the document should expand the range of services of the subordinate Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Passport and Visa Service” and the specialized Moscow “migration” MFC for processing documents of labor migrants and registering citizens at their place of residence (see “Kommersant” dated November 28, 2022). However, judging by the State Duma database, the document froze after the first reading in January – probably just in anticipation of a number of conceptual decisions in the field of migration regulation.

The register of employers and migrant workers looks like a logical continuation of the reform. At the same time, in addition to monitoring those entering, it will also provide the government with new data on the state of the labor market. In the future, let us remind you that the government should begin to annually formulate a forecast of the personnel needs of the Russian economy – Vladimir Putin gave instructions on this at the State Council in September (see Kommersant on September 22). Foreign workers occupy a significant segment in the Russian economy: it is estimated that there are from 6 million to 9 million people, most of them in construction, retail trade, the service sector and the agro-industrial complex. And although the very idea of ​​​​a detailed forecast of the need for workers, as Kommersant has already written, raises a number of questions, it is impossible in principle to solve the problem without specific data on migrants: now information about them mainly comes from surveys.

The government is also exploring the possibility of creating a digital platform where educational and methodological materials will be posted for foreigners coming to live and work in Russia to learn the Russian language. “This will facilitate faster adaptation of migrant workers,” explained the White House press service. This project is probably also aimed at filling the scarce Russian labor market.

It should be noted that the personnel shortage, according to the market research laboratory of the Gaidar Institute of Economics and Economics, is record-breakingly increasing employers’ plans to plan salary increases. So far, however, as follows from the Central Bank’s data, these plans are only partially being realized, and labor in the Russian Federation remains undervalued (see Kommersant on October 23). In this situation, the state’s proposal to take on part of the costs of attracting foreign workers, creating a structure for their adaptation, looks illogical, which may be adjusted through new approaches to the tax burden.

Anastasia Manuilova