Russia ranks first in the world by the number of sanctions imposed on her because of its military actions in Ukraine. It has negatively affected the incomes of ordinary citizens and migrant workers. The economic situation forces the natives of Central Asia working in Russia to look for new income opportunities.
Kyrgyzstani Aibek Musakov has worked as a carrier in Moscow for the last five years. According to him, his income decreased three times in the last few days.
“I used to earn up to 5,000 roubles a day before, and now my income is one third of that. We have fewer orders, people are in panic. Many restaurants are closing on March 14, and we were told that there would be a reduction of staff. I wanted to look for another job, but there are no vacancies. My wife also works in Moscow as a waitress, and her salary was cut by 50 per cent. We don’t know how we would repay our loans now,” Musakov said.
The income of Central Asian labour migrants have fallen by 20 per cent or more just in a few days. Moscow taxi drivers do not work any longer. Nurlan Zhumanbaev of Kazakhstan, who worked as a taxi driver, is looking for a job in another sphere.
“I was a taxi driver in Yandex.Taxi. On March 4, they told us that the company couldn’t repay their debts because of the new restrictions. I’ve been earning only 50 per cent of my salary for two months already. The supplies of necessary equipment, applications and required technologies were suspended, too. It means that Yandex would soon be closed. Now I am actively looking for a job,” Zhumanbaev said.
According to professor of the Higher School of Economics (HSE) Andrei Glazyev, the coronavirus pandemic has reduced the number of migrant workers in Russia by 40 per cent – many of them lost their jobs, others left the country and did not come back. The current anti-Russian sanctions may reduce the number of migrants by 50-60 per cent more.
“In other words, if now Russia has nearly 10 million migrants, say, there will be only 4-5 million in a few months,” Glazyev said to CABAR.asia.
According to Shukhrat Mamatov of Uzbekistan, his life has changed drastically for a few days. He works as a shop assistant at night in Moscow, and sells brooms during the day. His mother and brothers lost their jobs because of the crisis, and foodstuff prices went up by 30-40 per cent due to the drop in the rouble exchange rate.
“We want to leave home or for the United States. They say, people earn good money there. We have tried to find a job in Korea. But we were deceived and they stole our money. We rent one room with our family. In February, we paid 20 thousand roubles for the apartment, but now we will be paying 33 thousand roubles. It’s a shame. What shall we do now?” Mamatov said.
Kyrgyzstani Gulzat Kozukeeva is studying in Moscow and works at a bakery shop. Her university tuition fees went up, while income went down.
“My job used to help me, and now we have fewer clients. Flour price goes up every day, and we cannot raise the price because our clients will complain and there are so many competitors in our business. If I find the second job, I will quit my classes. I don’t want to go home because I was dreaming of getting education in Moscow. My incomes went down just in a few days. There’s no sugar available. I will probably lose my job,” Kozukeeva said.
According to Nurzida Bensgier, director of the International Information Centre, now many migrants are willing to take on an extra job.
“The soaring dollar has reduced the opportunities of foreigners to help their relatives staying back home. The expenses will increase, and the salaries will not. Therefore, to maintain the living standard, many people are searching for the second, or third job. If previously an average workday lasted 12 hours, now people are willing to work 14 or 16 hours a day to keep their remittances to their relatives at the same level as before,” she said.
On March 10, the American fast money transfer system, Western Union, announced suspension of its operations in Russia. Migrant workers who transfer money back home are considered core customers of this service. Visa and MasterCard payment systems also stopped working with Russian banks.
Tajikistani Umar Khuseinov has worked as a courier in Russia for two years. According to him, now it takes much time and effort to transfer money to his family.
“Western Union was comfortable because one could make a remittance and receive it at any bank in any country. Now I have to find a bank, ask bank details from the recipient, and wait. If there is no branch office available in the country, I have to find those banks that have signed memorandums with that bank. Everything is so mixed up that even bank officers do not understand what to do. I personally lose money whenever I remit it because the cash transfer fee is very high,” Khuseinov said.
However, Vadim Kozhenov, president of the Migrants Federation of Russia, feels more optimistic about it. According to him, there are other money transfer systems, other than Western Union, that continue to work.
“For example, some prefer ‘Zolotaya Korona’ or ‘Asia Credit’. ‘Russian Post’ continues to work, it still performs international remittances. As to the labour force, we won’t avoid this problem. The devaluation and fall of the rouble have already contributed to the reduction in revenues. It would be unprofitable for migrants to work for peanuts given that it’s expensive to rent an apartment and live in Russia,” Kozhenov said.
After the rouble’s collapse, citizens of Russia buy one-way airline tickets urgently. In this situation, airline tickets have gone up fivefold. There are flights from Russian to Central Asian states, but prices are very high and unaffordable to many people. Therefore, many migrants cannot leave Russia, and some of them leave by surface transport.
Kyrgyzstanis Aibek Saparov and Bolat Khamidov have worked in Moscow in the service industry, and after the rouble’s collapse they are trying to leave home. But they don’t have enough money for air tickets, while trains travel only within Russia. One can travel by car or bus, but they run rarely, and their ticket prices have also gone up. For example, one could travel from Astrakhan to Atyrau for 2 thousand roubles before, now it costs at least 6-7 thousand roubles.
According to the HSE, Russia is facing the shortage of work force. In 2018, the number of able-bodied population in Russia was 76.2 million people, in 2020, it was 75.4 million, and in two months of 2022, it reduced to 50.8 million people. The number of migrants has decreased too. Every year, Russia had 10 to 12 million foreigners in its territory, more than a half of which were migrant workers and 95 per cent were natives of the CIS. Now many of them leave for other countries to work or go back home.
Uzbekistani Takhir Samoilov had worked as a courier and a taxi driver in Moscow, but decided to move to Turkey because of the crisis.
“If Russian citizens earn 50,000 roubles at the same job, we earned only 30,000, but our workload was higher. […] It was a dream to place children into school, kindergarten. Here people become cruel. Everyone wants to deceive each other, take your money. My wife and I have decided to leave for Antalya. Now we are learning Turkish. The salary there is about 500 dollars per person, but they provide accommodation,” Samoilov said.
Many regions of the country complain about the shortage of migrant workers. According to HSE, if they leave Russia, the shortage of workers could be 80 per cent. This points to the fact that accommodation and utility costs will go up. The Migrants Federation hopes that the situation will become steady and Russia will develop a programme to attract migrant workers.
The Russian government is going to submit a new package of measures to attract migrants. The suggestions are to reduce the patent fee for the citizens of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan; to open land boundaries for the citizens of EAEU states; to grant residence permits to all migrant workers who have paid for patent fees on time for three or five years; to not expel those who have committed minor administrative offence for the first time, etc.
When the document comes into force is unknown. The government of Russia cannot answer this question. However, the document is expected to be reviewed by legislative bodies in early April.