Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 3 – Some Russians may not like the influx of migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan because they are culturally and linguistically distinct, but in the future, Marat Zharapov says, Russians may come to view such people as almost “native” because future waves of immigrants are likely to come from Africa and India.
Indeed, the Versiya commentator says, Russians are likely to refer to them as “Afro-Russians” and “Indo-Russians” to highlight just how much more different they are likely to be than any migrants from former Soviet republics (versia.ru/gastarbajtery-iz-uzbekistana-i-kirgizii-skoro-mogut-pokazatsya-rodnymi).
As migration from the Central Asian and Caucasian countries has slowed but Russia’s demographic decline continued, he says, Russian businesses are already preparing for a mass influx of migrant workers from Africa and Asia; and Moscow is already preparing a new visa regime that will allow up to 10,000 Africans to arrive in the immediate future.
But neither Russian companies nor the Russian government has publicized this, Sharapov says; and most of what one knows about it comes not from either of them but rather from African leaders who are thrilled that their citizens will have a chance to work in Russia and send home transfer payments.
That the Russian government has kept quiet about this is no surprise. On the one hand, the Kremlin certainly knows how sensitive the issue of immigration already is and the possibility that new migrants will be even more distinctive than current ones is not something it wants to advertise in this election season.
And on the other, the powers that be in Moscow undoubtedly hope that the new immigrants will come in relatively small doses and can be dispersed throughout the country, something that will limit the attention they’re likely to receive in the central media and thus the anger that some Russians may feel about this development.
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