Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 2 – For more than a
decade, Russian polling agencies have asked Russians what they think of
immigrant workers, with the results showing that their attitude toward people
many call gastarbeiters is increasingly negative. But few efforts have been
made to determine what the immigrants think of the Russians among whom they now
live and work.
A happy exception is the first-ever
survey of the attitudes of immigrants in the northern capital, a survey which
shows that these people have or at least are inclined to express a remarkably
positive attitude toward Petersburgers, the city and indeed Russia and Russians
as a whole (gorod-812.ru/chto-migrantyi-dumayut-o-nas/).
More than 70 percent of them say
they are studying Russian traditions, nearly 60 percent go to museums and
theaters, and also 60 percent read Russian literature. They view Petersburgers
as “’cultured people,’” journalist Elena Rotkevich reports, and they say that the
city is for them “’’better than Moscow.’”
This first-ever survey there of
immigrant worker opinion sampled more than 300 gastarbeiters from Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and other countries, she continues. They had an overwhelmingly positive view of the
city and its residents and generally feel good about living there.
The immigrants described Petersburgers
as polite, wealthy, and confident but also as lazy and angry, although
significantly three out of four of those responding could not name “a single
negative quality” of city residents in a response to an open-ended question. Those
who conducted the survey say they suspect immigrants thereby wanted to avoid
trouble.
To the surprise of those who queried
the gastarbeiters, the immigrants to the city said they read Russian
literature, went to museums and theaters and watched Russian films on
television. And the sociologists suggest
that this shows a high level of integration of the immigrants in the northern
capital.
Migrant workers did complain about
difficulties in dealing with officials and security work and about the increasing
rise in prices for housing and food.
Vadim Orkushko, first deputy chairman
of the city’s committee for interethnic relations and migration policy which
sponsored the poll, says that it has done so in order to avoid developments
like the formation of ghettoes or a spike in anti-Russian or anti-immigrant
attitudes that could lead to extremism.
The exact size of the immigrant
worker population in the city is a matter of debate. Just over two million
foreigners came to St. Petersburg last year, but only 367,000 had permission to
work. Others who come on tourist visas but work become “illegals” and cost the city
tax money not collected and services which must be provided.
He says that the problem of illegal
immigration is serious and that he favors both tighter controls and a reduction
in the quota of immigrants for the city.
St. Petersburgers may not take the jobs freed up by that, but people
from other parts of the Russian Federation can be counted on to come and do the
work.
Okrushko says he has strong doubts
that the figure the survey reported of Russian language knowledge is true. He says
that it is his impression that far fewer than 70 percent of the immigrants
speak Russian. And he notes that only
one in five of immigrant workers wants to remain in Russia permanently.
The city official says that tensions
between residents and immigrants have fallen. A decade or more ago, 60 to 70
percent of Petersburgers had a negative attitude toward immigrant workers. Now
that figure, Okrushko continues, is “about 20 percent.” People can see that immigrants aren’t the
source of crime and problems they had thought they were.
And as a result, migrants no longer
are afraid to appeal to city officials for help, something that promotes
integration and keeps any problems that do arise from getting out of hand.
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