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Labor migrants in Russia should have basic knowledge of Russian language

The minimum vocabulary should be 850 words

MOSCOW, March 17 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian Ministry of Education and Science has published requirements for the basic knowledge of Russian by migrants who want to work in Russia. According to its draft instruction published the Ministry’s official website, migrants should be able to read a text and understand its basic meaning and subject. They are also obliged to understand by ear dialogues on everyday and social themes and be able to make logical and coherent phrases. The minimum vocabulary should be 850 words.

Another draft document concerns the organization of Russian language tests for labor migrants. It tells how tests will be conducted and sets the criteria of selection of institutions of high learning that will test migrants for their knowledge of Russian. Such institutions of high learning should have test centers with at least ten years of experience in this field. The rectors of the aforesaid institutions of high learning will have to keep the electronic database of those migrants who pass the language test and supply this information to the Russian Federal Migration Service.

A law on mandatory knowledge of Russian by labor migrants working in the housing and utilities sector, trade and everyday services took effect on December 1, 2012.

The law requires from foreigners who wish to work in the aforesaid sectors to confirm their knowledge of basic Russian. Labor migrants will have to submit a certificate confirming their knowledge of Russian at least at the basic level if they want to get or prolong their work permits.