central asian migrant workers
TRANSCRIPT
Kathy Pham, [email protected] Undergraduate Slavic Conference at UCLA University of California, Los Angeles
The Underclass, Central Asian Migrant Workers in Moscow
What’s the Purpose?Human rights interest
Comparison to our own domestic issues/policy
International security interest
February 6, 2015
February 23, 2015“Islamic State messaging to Central Asians Migrant
Workers in Russia”, Noah Tucker (Feb 2015)
March 12, 2015
Outline of the PresentationBackground & Terminology
Push and Pull factors for Central Asia Migration to Russia
Economics, Exit or Voice theory
Russian Perceptions of Central Asian Migrant Workers
Case Study of October 2013 Race Riots and Mass Deportation
Concluding Thoughts
Sources & Acknowledgements
Background & Terminology
Cultural-Linguistic Note:Russians use two separate terms:
!1. Средняя Азия, five CIS republics2. Центральная Азия, a wider definition that
includes lands outside the former Soviet Union
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Содружество Независимых Государств, СНГ: Formed when the former Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. At its conception it consisted of ten former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.!As of current (May 2015), it has 8 member states and one participating state: Ukraine.
Where is Central Asia?
Not in CIS, not much prior involvement until 1979 Soviet Invasion
9
During this presentation, we will define Central Asia as these five CIS republics.!1. Turkmenistan2. Uzbekistan3. Tajikistan 4. Kyrgyzstan5. Kazakhstan !And of course, we will also talk about…
Russia
Central Asian Migrant Workers
Push & Pull Factors for Migration
Figure 1. Russia – Sending Countries of Migrants to Russia (thousand persons)
From Russian Federation Federal State Statistics Service graphical data on “Foreign Countries Migration of Population” 2013.
March 12, 2015
“According to the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) on Aug. 4th, 2014, there are about 4,877,163 citizens of the Post-Soviet Central Asian republics in Russian territory. !In that number, 2,551,309 Uzbekistanis, 1,70,403 Tajikistanis, 555,003 Kyrgyzstanis, 580,046 Kazakhstanis and 20,402 Turkmenistanis. ![…] In comparison to late March 2014, the total of citizens from the post-Soviet Central Asian countries in Russia grew by 382,785 people.”
Adapted from Bogoyavlenskiy, Dmitri “Перепись 2010: этнический срез”(Nov. 2012)
Adapted from Bogoyavlenskiy, Dmitri “Перепись 2010: этнический срез”(Nov. 2012)
Adapted from Bogoyavlenskiy, Dmitri “Перепись 2010: этнический срез”(Nov. 2012)
Table 1.“Prevalence of Poverty Among the Central Asian Peoples (Percentages of Population)”
From Peiman, Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus, 2008 pg. 35.
Table 2. Unemployment Rates in Central Asia
Adapted from Peiman, Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus, 2008 pg. 35.
Country Unemployment Rate between 2006-2007
Kazakhstan 7.2%
Kyrgyzstan 8.3%
Tajikistan 15%
Turkmenistan N/A Government does not disclose official unemployment rate
Uzbekistan 6%
Economics - Push Factor for Migrant Workers
• National GDPs from highest to lowest: Kazakhstan ($149.06 billion) vs. Tajikistan ($5.64 billion) - World Bank data 2010
• 2013: Kazakhstan $231.9 billion, Tajikistan $8.5 billion
• National Trade from highest to lowest: Kazakhstan ($55 billion) vs. Tajikistan ($1.06 billion) - Harvard Center for International Development 2010
• According to Carnegie Endowment researchers,
• Tajikistan greatly depends on migrant labor “as many as 1.5 million of its 6.9 million people work abroad, the vast majority of them in Russia.”
• Remittances from migrant labor equal to around 49% of Tajikistan’s GDP, super high ratio
Why Tajikistan? Let’s look at some charts ahead.
Tajikistan & Kazakhstan
Main Kazakhstan Exports
Economic Complexity Observatory, MIT Media Lab and the Center for International Development at Harvard University. (TC) http://atlas.media.mit.edu/
Main Tajikistan Exports
Economic Complexity Observatory, MIT Media Lab and the Center for International Development at Harvard University. (TC) http://atlas.media.mit.edu/
N O N S U S TA I N A B L E P R A C T I C E S =
A R A L S E A S H R I N K A G E
September 21, 2012
Expensive public facilities, which are often underutilized…Sound familiar?
Tajikistan: A Record-Setting Nation
Mismanagement of funds? Second tallest Flag Pole in the World
More books than will ever be accessed. Largest Library in Central Asia
Central Asia’s Largest Museum
“Exit, Voice and Loyalty” (1970)German economist Albert Otto Hirschman claims that when people perceive a decline in the quality of services provided by their government, they have two options: either exit that country or voice their concern to get the government to act.
Russian Perceptions of Central Asian Migrant Workers
Saint Petersburg: Images from “The Migrant Worker’s Guide”
Images from «Справочника трудового мигранта»
From the Property Department of Moscow, Департамент имущества города москва
May 30th 2013
- Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow
In global practices, [they] tried to create some sort of ghettos, neighborhoods with one culture. Unfortunately, nothing good ever comes from this idea. !I am categorically against this. I figure that Moscow is a Russian city and it should remain that way. It is not Chinese, Tajik or Uzbek. We are always happy to have guests. !Russia is a multiethnic/multinational country, all nationalities and traditions are mixed. To separate them, to turn different cultures against one another is very dangerous, simply explosive [conflict-inducing], especially for our city.
В мировой практике пытались создавать такие гетто, районы с монокультурой. К сожалению, ничего хорошего из этой идеи не получилось… !Я категорически против этого. Считаю, что Москва – российский город и таким она должна оставаться. Не китайским, не таджикским и не узбекским. Мы всегда рады гостям. !Россия — многонациональная страна, все национальности и традиции перемешаны. Выделять их отдельно, противопоставлять другим культурам очень опасно, просто взрывоопасно, особенно для нашего города.
Quoted from Московские Новости, Moscow Times (May 2013), http://www.mn.ru/moscow_authority/20130530/347635870.html
- Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow
Людям, которые плохо говорят по-русски, у которых совершенно другая культура, лучше жить в своей стране. !Поэтому мы не приветствуем их адаптацию в Москве. Я считаю, что скорее всего это сезонные рабочие, которые, поработав, должны ехать к своим семьям, в свои дома, в свои страны.
Quoted from Московские Новости, Moscow Times (May 2013), http://www.mn.ru/moscow_authority/20130530/347635870.html
People who poorly speak Russian and who have a completely different culture are better off living in their own country. !As such we in Moscow are not welcoming to their adaptation/integration. I figure soon these seasonal workers, who have finished working, must go to their own families, own homes and their own countries.
– Anatoly Yakunin, chief deputy of Moscow police, the city’s Interior Ministry
“В Москве 50 процентов преступлений совершаются иногородними, а 20 процентов из них дело рук, как правило, нелегальных мигрантов, в большей степени выходцев из государств Средней Азии.”
“Fifty percent of the crimes committed in Moscow are committed by people from
other cities, and 20% of them, as a rule, are committed by illegal migrants, mainly
people from Central Asia.”
Popular Opinions on “What to do with Illegal Immigrants?”
Graphic and Statistics from Центр исследования массового E-знания,
Research Center of Mass Electronic Knowledge
From the Property Department of Moscow, Департамент имущества города москва
Biryulyovo District
October 10: 25-year old Russian man Yegor Shcherbakov stabbed to death in Biryulyovo in the early morning hours
Police reports suspected it was a Central Asian
October 12-13: Largest race riots erupt since December 2010, when the murder of an ethnic Russian soccer fan by a man from the North Caucasus ignited ultranationalist rioting near the Kremlin.
October 13: An estimated 1,200-1,400 migrant workers arrested and detained in deportation camps.
October 15: An Azeri national, Orkhan Zeinalov, was arrested and convicted for murder.
A Ticking time bomb
October 12-13, 2013 Largest Protests/Police Raids in Biryulyovo
–Username: Julibinets, 2012
“There’s practically no Russians here, it’s uncomfortable to go here.”
“It’s a source of ‘unsanitary’ and illegal migrants.”–Username: Magistr_tk, 2013
–Username: Oleg, 2013
“It’s about time that this warehouse closed. The leader of this warehouse, or more precisely flea market, created this corrupt system—he does not pay taxes, although he has millions in Azerbaijan…where he built a mosque, school, hip restaurant, created roads…..But what did he do for
Russia? !
Only illegals, who are engaged in theft, extortions and assassinations, work in the territory of his
warehouse.…In short it’s not a vegetable warehouse, but an ‘orgy of crime’”
–Username: Prosport, 2013
“We need to liquidate this ‘stench’ already.”
чу́рка • (čúrka) a block of wood
(colloquial) a dumb, uneducated person, a dullard, a booby (offensive, ethnic slur) an immigrant from Central Asia
or the Caucasus, a wog
–Username: MEGAMIX, 2013
“There are more “Чурок” in Biryulyovo than Muscovites.”
Owner of Vegetable Warehouse Arrested
• October 16, 2013: Magomed Churilov, arrested in with a prison term for 7 years for the organization of unlawful migration (Izvestia 2014).*
• As of June 2014: Under house arrest (Petersburg Daily Journal).
*по ч. 2 ст. 322.1 УК РФ «Организация незаконной миграции организованной группой»
–Username: Fatherfrost, 2014
“Moscow authorities promise to make the warehouse in this place into a transport hub, and there will be a trolley branch there.”
Moscow Times - Oct 2013
Deportation of Central Asians
Suspected illegal migrant laborers inside a detention camp in Moscow on August 6.
Image from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2015
Local and State Regulations on Immigration and Work Visas
Dec 2007: Simplified process to register on the migration registry Federal Migration Service (FMS) if visit is less than 90 days.
Must be done in three days, work permit quotas instated.
Dec 2012: Minimum level of Russian language proficiency required for migrant workers in professions, such as retail and public services.
Feb 2013: Fingerprinting required for work permit applications.
Apr 2013: Railroad connections between Russia and Tajikistan, suspended, because FSB claims that the trains are a main channel for heroin trafficking. (Russia Today, RT)
Aug 2013: FMS considers phasing out strict quotas to recruit highly-skilled foreign professionals.
Proposed Plan: Qualified specialists will be granted residency for two years, while highly skilled immigrants (those earning roughly $60,000 a year) will be given three-year residence permits.
Local and State Regulations on Immigration and Work Visas
Local and State Regulations on Immigration and Work Visas!
Oct-Nov 2014: “Operation Migrant 2014” in Moscow, mass raids to crack down on illegal immigrants;
“Operation Illegal 2014” in St Petersburg, 437 migrants faced criminal charges.
Jan 2015: Central Asian citizens will no longer be able to use their internal passports to enter Russia;
Migrant workers in Russia required to pass a history/civics exam
Summer 2015: History and vocabulary sections will be revised
Limitations of StudyIssue: Limited access to primary sources
Secondary sources - Newspapers, academic articles, policy recommendations, social media sites, blogs, photos
Issue: Short time scale observed
Need to continue this research, conduct more case studies
Issue: Missing Central Asian perspectives
More possibilities to interview the migrant workers and their families
Concluding Thoughts
AcknowledgementsThank you to the following individuals:
Susan Kresin
Elena Skudskaia
Naomi Caffee
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