Abstract
With a foreign-born population approaching 9 %, Russia has the second-largest stock of migrants in the world after the USA. The country has become the main destination for migrants within the evolving Eurasian migration system. This chapter traces the evolution of Russian migration policy from relatively free movement in the immediate post-Soviet period to much more regulated migration after 2000. It analyzes (1) the actors who make and implement Russian migration policy, (2) migration trends, (3) the social, economic, and political environment in which migration policy is created, and (4) the actual laws and policies designed to regulate migration in Russia, paying particular attention to issues of restriction.
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Notes
- 1.
Federal State Statistics Service of Russia website (http://www.gks.ru/ accessed 3 April 2010).
- 2.
This is based on projects done by the World Bank, World Development Indicators CD-ROM 2007, the UN (Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision (http://esa.un.org/unpp, accessed 24 October 2008), and the US Census Bureau, International Data Base, last updated 18 June 2008 (http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/ accessed 24 October 2008).
- 3.
The working-age population in Russia is defined as males ages 16–64 and females ages 16–59.
- 4.
Measured in current international dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity.
- 5.
Those not part of this list were the Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania, Turkmenistan from which emigration and labor migration is restricted and Uzbekistan.
- 6.
This was actually embedded in the new constitution, which also allowed for Russian citizens to freely leave and reenter the country.
- 7.
The CIS is the Commonwealth of Independent States and consists of all 15 of the states of the former Soviet Union except for the three Baltic states.
- 8.
The actual name of the law was “Concerning visa-free movements of CIS citizens over the territories of CIS member states” (International Centre for Migration Policy Development <CitationRef CitationID="CR32" >2005</Citation Ref>).
- 9.
In the typical bureaucratic fashion of international organizations the full name of the conference was “Regional Conference to Address the Problems of Refugees, Displaced persons, Other Forms of Involuntary Displacement and Returnees in the Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Relevant Neighboring States.”
- 10.
This detailed “Russian Migration Legislation Timeline, 1989–2009” was painstakingly compiled by Erin Hofmann and Yuka Minagawa. The most recent version of the database was issued in November 2009.
- 11.
The name of the program was “Measures to Facilitate the Voluntary Relocation to the Russian Federation of Compatriots Living Abroad,” Presidential Order No. 637, 22 June 2006.
- 12.
According to Rosstat, the population only declined by 4000 people from the beginning of 2009 to the beginning of 2010, from 141,904,000 to 141,900,000. The next Russian population census is scheduled for October 2010 which will confirm the actual population change.
- 13.
The actual percent of LPRs who were actual adjustments in status ranged between 58 and 59 % in the years 2007–2009.
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Heleniak, T. (2016). The Evolution of Russian Migration Policy in the Post-Soviet Period. In: Leal, D., Rodríguez, N. (eds) Migration in an Era of Restriction and Recession. Immigrants and Minorities, Politics and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24445-7_11
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