PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

    View
  • Pro-Kremlin Propaganda’s Failure in Ukraine | New Voices on Eurasia with Aaron Erlich (Jan. 19)

    View
  • Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

    View
  • Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens students daily and forces teachers to improvise

    View
  • Prevailing Soviet Legacies

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Immigrant Lockdown Camps: Another Symbol of Today’s Russia?

  • August 21, 2013
  • PONARS Eurasia

(By Olga Gulina) Reality is likely to teach immigrants coming to Russia a hard lesson. The state's migration policy is veiled in seemingly liberal slogans although its application is explicitly illiberal. A fact of reality is that anti-immigrant policies are in demand by the Russian electoral market. For example, according to Levada Center polling:

  • 71% of Russians are convinced that immigrants are mostly criminals and support their deportation.
  • 73% support strong and tough measures by the authorities against immigrants.
  • 53.3% view them as ignoring Russian language and culture, and having difficulties in communication.
  • 42.3% characterize them as low skilled and poorly educated persons.
  • 35% are irritated by the “untidy and repulsive appearances” of newcomers.
  • 18.7% disapprove of their bad manners and indelicacy.
  • 55% of Muscovites are displeased with having immigrants living in Moscow.

Nobody knows the exact number of migrants illegally living and working in Russia. The Federal Migration Service says there may be up to 4 million individuals while independent experts elevate these figures to 8-10 million.

Meanwhile, most immigrants enter Russia via visa-free regimes, mostly from Central Asia. Upon their arrival at airports or railway stations, many of them meet agents offering unauthorized jobs. Some of them already have close relatives working illegally who secure jobs for them through informal contacts. Either way, they are usually content to take on tough jobs.

The fight against illegal immigration is a hard and new task for the Russian government, which on April 8, 2013, adopted a decree introducing requirements for immigrant detention centers. According to this act, pre-deportation centers must include reception zones, sanitary inspections, a disinfection zone, medical sections, infectious insulators, administrative offices, storerooms, detention places, food areas, and gym facilities (if possible). There are 21 detention centers in Russia today. Most of them are low on space and do not meet the required standards. In the coming years, 83 centers are planned to be built in 81 Russian regions.

Yet, a tent camp in Golianovo near Moscow, which was built within one week this past July, shows how twisted the policy is. Much of the haste can be explained by the forthcoming mayoral election in Moscow on September 8, 2013. The camp seems to have been built not to cater to immigrant needs but to meet voters' expectations. Sanitary, food, and medical facilities for the 600 detainees (quite a few are pregnant women) seem to be viewed as excessive luxuries. According to available information, the police have banned lawyers, interpreters, and human rights activists from entering the camp. The Golianovo detention camp made clear that for the majority of society, violations of human rights is of little interest.

On August 20, 2013, Novaya Gazeta published a letter signed by a group of leading human rights activists who dubbed the recent anti-immigration moves as a “populist campaign before elections,” and one that harms those who actually create 7% of Russia's GDP.

For many years, the migration services have been stagnating and corrupt, and society has been content to see migrants as aliens. I expect neither supportive reaction to Novaya Gazeta’s appeal, nor changes in the attitudes toward immigrants within Russian society, at least in the near term. The lop-sided anti-immigration measures we see remind us, again, of the agonies taking place within an incapacitated administrative machine.

Olga Gulina is a former Kennan Institute fellow. Gulina's contribution was invited by PONARS Eurasia member Andrey Makarychev.

Related Topics
  • Gulina
  • Immigration
  • Makarychev
  • Russia
Previous Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Can Tension in U.S.-Russia Relationship Lessen?

  • August 20, 2013
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
Next Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Race for Rare Earths in Central Asia

  • August 21, 2013
  • Sebastien Peyrouse
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • January 11, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Prevailing Soviet Legacies

  • Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov
  • December 27, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In Russia’s Nuclear Messaging to West and Ukraine, Putin Plays Both Bad and Good Cop

  • Simon Saradzhyan
  • December 23, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukraine’s Asymmetric Responses to the Russian Invasion

  • Nurlan Aliyev
  • July 28, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Territorial Conflict

Dominating Ukraine’s Sky

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • March 5, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russian Anti-War Protests and the State’s Response

  • Lauren McCarthy
  • March 4, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gel'man
  • August 22, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.