MOSCOW, March 22 (Itar-Tass) —— Head of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) Konstantin Romodanovsky reported for the State Duma on Wednesday on the progress of developing a renewed concept of the migration policy. He noted the Chinese threat does not exist, a massive inflow of labour migrants is not expected from Europe. Meanwhile, Romodanovsky made public the exact number of foreigners coming to Russia.
The Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily cited Romodanovsky that the reports about millions of migrants coming to Russia, according to media reports with the reference to various experts, are not confirmed by the statistics of the Federal Migration Service, which has been operating the migration registration information system already for four years. “The migration processes are generally stable and did not undergo any drastic changes. This concerns quantitative and qualitative indicators of migrants and the main countries of their exodus,” Romodanovsky told deputies, noting that about 13-14 million foreigners arrive in Russia annually. Some 70% of them are citizens of the CIS states and ten percent are citizens of the EU states.
The FMS head told deputies that there is no massive inflow of migrants in Russia as well as a steeping growth in the crime rate in this sphere, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta noted. The Chinese threat also does not exist, but the inflow of highly qualified personnel is growing from various countries to Russia.
Romodanovsky stated about easier migration procedures. For instance, the so-called temporary residence permit will be abolished soon. This is an archaic document with the functions that almost coincide with a residence permit. Now the time, which an average migrant spends for integration in the Russian society, will not make eight years. By the way, FMS does not have any disastrous indicators about an enormous number of illegal migrants, the newspaper noted. Some 4.5 million people from abroad work in Russia. Most of them legalized their work, but there are some of them who escape from the law. FMS is ready to fight seriously with them and Russian resident employers, who recruit them.