More than 70 Percent of Muscovites Want to Limit Influx of Migrant Workers

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 24 – While 54 percent of all Russians favor limiting the influx of migrant workers, more than 70 percent of residents of the capital and a like share of those in Primorsky Kray in the Russian Far East, according to poll data presented at a Moscow seminar on interethnic relations.

            The figures from Moscow are likely high because so many immigrants come to that city because of its higher wages; those from Primorsky Kray are likely almost as high because of the influx of Chinese whom Russian officials there support at the expense of local residents (nazaccent.ru/content/41672-na-seminare-po-nacpolitike-v-podmoskove.html).

            The same survey found that “more than 80 percent” of Russians in the country as a whole are satisfied with inter-ethnic relations, but the figures are lower in Moscow Oblast, Moscow city, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Primorsky Kray and St. Petersburg, again places where immigrants are the most numerous.

            Participants in the seminar said that foreign countries are seeking to exacerbate interethnic relations in the Russian Federation by promoting territorial demands by one group about another, and playing up historical grievances, creating movements abroad to mobilize ethnic groups.

            They also agreed that external efforts to promote ethnic conflicts were increasing as Russia enters the runup to the presidential elections in March 2024.