The Russian Far East must be protected from excessive expansion of foreigners, RF Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday at a government meeting that discussed the migration policy.
“The challenge of protecting our Far Eastern territories from excessive expansion of the citizens of bordering states remains,” the Izvestia daily quoted the prime minister as saying. The newspaper recalls that Chinese citizens have been for many years in large numbers coming from China to Russia’s Far East. It’s been a long time since the issue of the threat of Chinese expansion in the region was raised. The Far East also borders on North Korea and Japan.
Medvedev also spoke against the creation of migrant enclaves in the territory of Russia. “It is important to prevent negative events of any kind, including the formation of enclaves of foreign nationals. This is a negative trend,” the RF government head believes.
The prime minister pointed to a sad trend: people with good education and high skills leave Russia as a rule, and the country instead has the inflow of laborers who “could hardly express themselves in Russian and do not know either our laws or our culture.” “It is necessary to attract foreign specialists in shortage professions that are in demand, but not to the detriment of our people who seek these jobs,” Medvedev set the priorities. “It is also necessary to prevent the formation of enclaves of foreign nationals on our soil.”
All of these issues, the newspaper noted, should be decided in the concept of the country’s migration policy up to 2025. It has already been approved by the president. In the near future the RF government should develop its implementation plan.
By 2025 the population of Russia, in spite of the demographic crisis, should increase by 3 million – by means of newcomers. This, the Moskovsky Komsomolets reports, is set forth in the Concept of the migration policy, the plan of implementation of which the government considered on Thursday. However, the future increase in the inflow of foreigners has caused Medvedev’s concern.
“Over the first six months of the year alone, more than 8 million foreign nationals have arrived in Russia,” the RF government head said. “There are about 10 million migrant workers in the country at present – which is comparable with the population of such megalopolis as Moscow.”
This information comes from experts, - the prime minister did not conceal - the official figures regarding the number of newcomers are underestimated 10 times. This is an illegal army controlled by nobody.
However, the attraction of migrants to the jobs unclaimed by the country’s own population is still a dream, believes the Moskovsky Komsomolets. In reality, the unemployment rate in Russia is 7-8 percent of able-bodied population – the number of migrants in the country is about the same. It has become common in the province when Russian men are unemployed and a crew of Tajiks repairs the road near their houses. The problem is not only in the laziness of Russians, but also in the banal workforce saving.
Director of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) Konstantin Romodanovsky, who submitted a plan for implementing the concept, had an answer. One of the first measures of the plan is to introduce amendments to the RF Criminal Code with the aim of toughening responsibility for the organization of illegal migration. “This offence, in our opinion, should be classified as a medium gravity crime, and if it is committed by a group by previous concert - as a grave crime,” said the official. This means punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
It is also planned to extend to 10 years the ban on entry to Russia for foreigners, who have been deported from the country. If they, despite the ban, enter the country, they can be imprisoned for up to five years. The current RF Criminal Code contains no such provisions.