The authorities have decided to put things in order with regard to migrant workers: a project for the controlled recruitment of foreign labour is being developed.
Photo: Alexey BULATOV. Go to Photobank KP
MANAGED RECRUITMENT INSTEAD OF ORGANIZED RECRUITMENT?
The authorities have decided to put things in order with migrant workers: a project for the controlled recruitment of foreign labour is being developed. It is expected to be included in the national personnel programme. Among the proposals, for example, is the elimination of fingerprinting and language tests outside Russia, and the linking of the migrant to one employer, RBC reports.
But we already have a system for the organisational recruitment of migrant workers, different quotas, statements that we invite only those specialists that we cannot find in Russia. It turns out that the authorities have finally admitted that this system does not work.
However, is there any confidence that “managed recruiting” will be better than organizational recruiting?
“We must honestly admit that the current organizational set-up is not working,” Vyacheslav Postavnin, director of the Migration of the 21st Century Foundation and former deputy head of the Federal Migration Service of Russia, told kp.ru. – The authorities understood this and decided: let’s make controlled migration. But this is simply ridiculous: the new project proposes to conduct Russian language exams for employees abroad. If now in Russia those who do not know the language at all pass the language exam, then we can imagine what will happen if the exam begins to be accepted in the country of departure of the migrant. This alone indicates the frivolity of the project.
TWO THOUSAND FOR A PAIR OF WORKING HANDS
According to the expert, the most important thing is to create a system of accounting and control of foreign labor.
“The movement of foreign labor into Russia occurs without the knowledge and influence of the Russian side, but through citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan,” Postavnin said. – Our employer orders the necessary number of workers from them and brings them in. For providing an unskilled employee, the employer pays the supplier 2 thousand rubles – this is called “per lead.”
And then the foreign worker disappears into the Russian expanses. There are no dismissals according to the Labor Code, there is no work. He simply does not show up for work one day. Moreover, as the company managers told me, this happens not to one person, but to the whole team. They receive a call from someone “older”, their compatriot, who drives them around Russia, negotiates with employers and says: “Tomorrow we are going to work in the fields.” That’s all. No one refuses, otherwise the person will find himself without protection in an unfamiliar country. In such a situation, a person does not need to know the language or the laws; the main thing is to “follow your own.”
“We have brought the situation to the point where migrants are locked in their own closed network structure; it is not known how many migrants we have, where they work, what professions they have, what sentiments prevail there,” says Postavnin. – In such a situation it is very difficult to influence them.
According to the source, Russian data processing facilities could help create an accounting and control system.
“For example, these could be structures that have powerful big data and can collect large amounts of information,” Postavnin said. – This information base will help create conditions for finding workers. In addition, a structure should be created, albeit not a state one, where foreign workers will be taught the language and knowledge of the law. Otherwise we say that he should know this and that. Where will he find out all this if he has just arrived from the village?
Another expert is also convinced that the main thing now is to exercise control over immigrants.
“Digitization has brought colossal opportunities, but our migration flow has not been digitalized,” Yuri Krupnov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Institute of Demography, Migration and Regional Development, told kp.ru with annoyance. – Three-quarters of migrants are in an unknown place on our territory. A person entering the country must be registered, and the purpose of his stay on our territory must be strictly monitored.
DON’T LET IT GO, IT WON’T WORK
There is a strong feeling in society against allowing immigrants into the country. The bulk of the complaints are about illegal conduct by some of them. It is believed that the ability to attract practically unlimited amounts of additional labor does not stimulate growth in labor productivity.
“Yes, free entry is like a huge rock against which all attempts to somehow regulate the flow of labor migration fail, but it will not be possible to abolish it,” says Postavnin. “We have granted so many citizenships that almost any resident of Central Asia can say: I am going to visit a relative.” How can we not let him in? He can legally stay with us for 90 days and find a job during this time. It will be illegal to work.
In his opinion, we cannot do without immigrants now.
“There is no intensification and robotisation now,” says Postavnin. – We are in dire need of labour resources, there is not enough of them, including migrants. Employers say: give us workers, whether they are migrants or from anywhere. Then they are needed.
The question of work intensification can be resolved in another way.
“We need to carry out accelerated reindustrialisation of the country, and to do it through the indigenous Russian population, to orient it towards complex forms of work, including the use of robotics,” Krupnov said. – And behind the migrants there is a shovel-like lifestyle, primitive forms of work.
