Illegal Migration: Russia

The author interprets issues related to illegal migration in Russia in the context of the new general international migration situation in the Euro-Asian region that resulted from collapse of the USSR and integration of the newly independent states in the world migration flows. The fact that Russia acts as a sending and—to a much greater extent—as a receiving and transit country is crucial for understanding the nature, reasons, challenges, and perspectives of illegal migration. The “multi-layer” character of illegal migration in Russia needs a diversity of approaches to how best to fight against security threats rooted in it. The major portion of illegal migrants in Russia are in fact labor migrants form former Soviet states, and their illegal status is often due to extremely complicated official registration procedure. The government’s official position in managing this type of illegal migrant (in terms of punishment, legalization, or granting citizenship if wanted) should be different from actions against numerous transit illegal migrants from Asian and African countries who use Russia as a waystation on their way to Europe or other developed regions. However, these transit migrants are mainly managed by migrant-traffickers. Along the borders of Russia, especially with China, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine there exist numerous well-organized channels for migrant smuggling. Therefore, the main efforts at national and regional levels should be directed against criminal trafficking organizations. They should be joined efforts of all the concerned countries.