Russian Firms Using Moscow Homeless to Perform Jobs Immigrants Did Before Pandemic

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 29 – Russian firms have been hard hit by the departure of immigrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus, people they have found difficult to replace because the wages they offer such people are far lower than most Russians are prepared to take. But now the firms have found an alternative source: the homeless (bomzhi).

            Not only are such people increasingly numerous because many Russians have lost their homes as a result of the economic crisis, but many who have been living on the streets for an extended period of time lack the skills or experience that would allow them to apply for better paying positions.

            According to Yekaterina Sazhneva of Moskovsky komsomolets, businesses see the homeless as the perfect substitute for the departed immigrant workers. They accept the lowest of wages, speak Russian well, and won’t make demands other better-placed workers do (mk.ru/social/2020/11/29/rabotodateli-v-otsutstvie-migrantov-nachali-formirovat-brigady-bomzhey.html).

            The number of homeless is large and growing – one estimate suggests there were more than five million before the pandemic and other say many more Russians have fallen into this category since – but there probably aren’t enough to make up for the loss of immigrants (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/russia-now-has-as-many-as-five-million.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/05/pandemic-radically-increasing.html).

            If Russian firms do turn to this group for new employees, that will involve both pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it will likely reduce disease and hunger among this group at the bottom of the Russian income scale (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/07/hidden-hunger-now-widespread-in-russia.html).

            But on the negative, it may create more cases of virtual slavery in Russia given that the homeless have even fewer protection arrangements than immigrants do (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/09/russia-now-has-more-slaves-than-china.html). And it may heighten tensions if the homeless seek the opening of more shelters in large Russian cities (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/09/russians-opposition-to-homeless.html).

            In the longer term, the employment of homeless Russians likely sets the stage for new conflicts over immigrants when they begin to return. Many Russians who don’t like immigrants will point to the homeless as a reason not to allow immigrants back, and many immigrants will see the homeless as threats to them, possibly touching off conflicts in the streets.

            Consequently, what may seem a program involving the most marginal of the marginal may grow into a problem at the center of major Russian cities, one that will help some but sets the stage for far more problems for others.