80 Percent of Russians Say There are Too Many Immigrants -- But at Even Higher Percentage of Police Do the Same, Survey Finds

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Oct. 29 – Eighty percent of the population of the Russian Federation says there are too many immigrants in Russia, according to a Headhunter poll, a figure 21 percent higher than did so a year ago before the Crocus City Hall attacks took place and anti-immigrant stories became a staple of Russian media.
    Particularly striking was the poll’s finding that 89 percent of police said there were too many immigrants in Russia, a sign that these employees of the government’s force structures are more hostile to immigrants than is the population as a whole (ritmeurasia.ru/news--2024-10-29--80-naselenija-rossii-schitaet-migraciju-chrezmernoj-76502).
    That the siloviki are even more ill-disposed to migrant workers than Russians as a whole suggests that the central powers that be are promoting such attitudes even more than are members of the general public and that police and other force structure employees are giving the answer that their commanders expect them to.
    Other finds of the Headhunter poll of 3,000 Russians, a poll that did not claim to be representative and therefore one whose results should be used with some caution, include the following:
•    58 percent of those surveyed say immigrants are used for work which local residents can’t or don’t want to do.
•    59 percent said companies employ immigrants because they can pay them less.
•    39 percent said they were prepared to do the jobs migrants perform while 28 percent said they were not.
•    62 percent said immigrant workers did Russia more harm than good while only 13 percent said the reverse was the case.