The threat from anti-migrant sentiment in power is identified: economic recession

Experts spoke about the consequences of restrictions on the entry of guest workers from other countries

State Duma deputy from Crimea Mikhail Sheremet proposed limiting the entry of migrants into Russia during the SVO to ensure internal security. He pointed out that foreigners from the CIS countries crossing the border pose a threat even to themselves, since they automatically become the object of interest of Western intelligence services, which use them to carry out terrorist attacks and destabilize the situation within our state. What the proposed ban could lead to Russia – in the material “MK”.

Deputy Sheremet emphasized that he respects residents of other states who travel to Russia with good intentions, but some of them are used blindly to harm Russians. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time today to figure out what intentions people have when they enter, since all efforts and means are aimed at protecting the borders of our country,” he explained his position. “Therefore, I think that for the duration of the special operation, migrants should exclude their travel to Russia.”

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for 8 months of 2023 (there are no more recent official data yet), foreigners received 110.5 thousand work permits in Russia, which is almost 20% more than for the same period in 2022. In addition, from January to August 2023, 2 million people had patents for work in the Russian Federation, which is almost 4% more than a year earlier. But citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Belarus can work without obtaining any permits. “It is difficult to accurately count the number of migrants who work in Russia due to different working conditions and the work of foreigners without obtaining patents,” says Alexander Safonov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. “But it’s a very significant portion of the workforce—about 10%.” The contribution of foreign citizens to the economy of our country is quite significant. If we estimate only the wage fund for workers from Uzbekistan, it will amount to at least 1 trillion rubles, of which at least half will remain within our country and be spent on purchasing Russian goods and services, the expert emphasized.

If the deputy’s proposal is implemented, this will increase the cost of labor, and ordinary citizens will immediately feel the consequences of such an initiative on their wallets: inflation will accelerate. “I think such a proposal is extremely inappropriate, it is fraught with a recession for the economy: construction will stop, and the cost of a taxi will increase by 3-4 times,” Alexander Razuvaev, a member of the supervisory board of the Guild of Financial Analysts and Risk Managers, continues the conversation. The West is trying to consistently incite anti-migrant sentiment in our country, although the organizers of all the latest terrorist attacks – the murder of Daria Dugina and military commander Vladlen Tatarsky, the attack on the writer Zakhar Prilepin and now the tragedy in Crocus – were most likely the Ukrainian special services. In addition, our country has signed agreements and certain obligations within the EAEU, so the implementation of such a proposal could cause problems at the international level, the analyst believes.

According to the director of the Institute of Socio-Economic Research at the Financial University, Alexei Zubets, if the organizers of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall had not found the perpetrators among the Tajiks, they could have found them among other nationalities, and even among opposition-minded Russian people. “Those who are fighting on the side of Ukraine can now be found among the Russians,” the scientist emphasized. — The choice of Tajiks to organize terrorist attacks was also made for the purpose of organizing internal unrest—anti-Tajik pogroms, since the Tajik diaspora is one of the largest in Russia. This is a multi-step political action, designed to have exactly the effect that the State Duma deputy is now talking about: to sow anti-migrant sentiment in the country.” And this, in turn, will cause extremism among migrants and Russians from the Muslim republics of our country, who can no longer be sent abroad. And loud statements by parliamentarians, wittingly or unwittingly, can spin such a spiral of violence. In order for Russia to develop, it needs to attract at least 150 thousand migrants to work every year. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his address to the Federal Assembly, said that our country should become the fourth economy in the world, for which it is necessary to overtake Japan and develop with a GDP growth rate of 3.5-4% per year. And if the access of labor from the post-Soviet space is stopped, then the tasks for economic development set by the president will simply be impossible. According to Safonov, the employment of migrants in Russia is not only important for our economy, it allows us to ensure social stability on our borders in the CIS countries. And this is the best prevention for the fight against extremism: it is not so easy to persuade a well-fed worker to engage in political provocations.