By Torokul Doorov
This is Kubanychbek Saparov. He came all the way from Batken province of Kyrgyzstan. He is currently working at Yugoslav construction firm that is building high-rises in the northern district of Moscow.
According to official data there are more than half million people like Kubanychbek who came to Russia, leaving house-holds and families back in Kyrgyzstan in search of better earning opportunities. Many of them are illegal migrants.
Near the entrance to the “Shodnenskaya” subway station in Moscow I met a young woman from Kyrgyzstan who distributes commercial leaflets. This is 24-year-old Mairam. She arrived in Moscow almost a year ago. In Kyrgyzstan Mairam graduated university with major on Russian Philology and had worked as a schoolteacher.
“What a bright girl” would say people in Kyrgyzstan about Mairam. She shares her success story about how once she established and run small enterprise in Nookat, her home village, hiring eight women for producing sweets. Even now, Mairam does not refer herself to “regular migrant” and considers herself a “business woman”.
However, it seems that her decisive and lively behaviors has altered since her arrival in Moscow. She intended to register and work legally in the beginning, and despite her intentions constant harassments by militia and employers have discouraged this young woman.
“When I just came here, I worked at one of the grocery stores here as a janitor. For three months of hard work I got paid 12 thousand rubles”.
«Torokul Doorov»: Why did they pay you so little?
“My employers would deduct eight thousand rubles from the salary for “official labor permission document”. I was on night shift, 12 hours we would work on feet. When I decided to leave that job, they refused to pay me for the last month of work. I was begging and looked miserable, but it did not help. No matter what, migrants will always be mistreated here”, concludes Mairam.
Then I heard the other side of the story. Natalia Zotova, analytic on migration of the Russian Ethnology and Anthropology Institute, claims that very often migrants are to blame for the negative attitude of locals towards them. The reason is that they escape legal ways of living and working in Russia.
“Right now, almost everybody who works in Russia do not wish to leave and re-enter the country, to collect necessary documents and refer to the corresponding government bodies. Simply because it is about putting efforts, spending money and a lot of time. Instead, they continue working underground, illegally as they got used. Not all the migrants are aware about the new regulations that are in force since January 15 of this year. Most of them work at construction sites; they do not leave the sites and do not have access to information, so how would they know? Moreover, migrants are afraid to contact the Migration Service Offices, as they mistrust them. They think if they come to Migration Office militia may arrest them.” 
According to the new regulations, in order to legalize their status all the illegal migrants need to leave the country first. Upon re-entering the Russia they will need to receive new migration card and register within necessary state organs.
Aside the legal side, there is a problem of xenophobia and racism which often result in violent crimes. “Russia is for Russians!” With such slogan members of the nationalistic youth movement marched in the Centre of Moscow, on November 4, 2005. The government officials have ever since been criticized for allowing this kind of march.
On May 24, Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, presented annual report for 2007. The right group criticized Russia of intensifying pressure on civil society; independent media, turning a blind eye to the growing number of hate crimes targeting foreigners, immigrants and sexual minorities.
As the flow of foreigners into Russia has significantly increased over the last years, the nationalistic moods amongst local populations are also growing. What are the reasons behind this tendency, how the government is coping with this problem? I reached up some local experts and labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, to find out more.
As the flow of foreigners into Russia has significantly increased over the last years, the nationalistic moods amongst local populations are also growing. What are the reasons behind this tendency, how the government is coping with this problem? I reached up some local experts and labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, to find out more.
“When walking in the streets, local people with children demonstratively avoid us or skeptically look at us as if we would hurt their kids. Perhaps they think of us as uneducated people as we often are treated by locals as ignorant. The other day, I was traveling by subway and heard two old women in the wagon talking to each other: “Can you believe they work for 500 rubles (per month)”- one says to other. Indeed, some of the migrants end up not paid even those 500 rubles.”
This is Kubanychbek Saparov. He came all the way from Batken province of Kyrgyzstan. He is currently working at Yugoslav construction firm that is building high-rises in the northern district of Moscow.
According to official data there are more than half million people like Kubanychbek who came to Russia, leaving house-holds and families back in Kyrgyzstan in search of better earning opportunities. Many of them are illegal migrants.
Near the entrance to the “Shodnenskaya” subway station in Moscow I met a young woman from Kyrgyzstan who distributes commercial leaflets. This is 24-year-old Mairam. She arrived in Moscow almost a year ago. In Kyrgyzstan Mairam graduated university with major on Russian Philology and had worked as a schoolteacher.
“What a bright girl” would say people in Kyrgyzstan about Mairam. She shares her success story about how once she established and run small enterprise in Nookat, her home village, hiring eight women for producing sweets. Even now, Mairam does not refer herself to “regular migrant” and considers herself a “business woman”.
However, it seems that her decisive and lively behaviors has altered since her arrival in Moscow. She intended to register and work legally in the beginning, and despite her intentions constant harassments by militia and employers have discouraged this young woman.
“When I just came here, I worked at one of the grocery stores here as a janitor. For three months of hard work I got paid 12 thousand rubles”.
«Torokul Doorov»: Why did they pay you so little?
“My employers would deduct eight thousand rubles from the salary for “official labor permission document”. I was on night shift, 12 hours we would work on feet. When I decided to leave that job, they refused to pay me for the last month of work. I was begging and looked miserable, but it did not help. No matter what, migrants will always be mistreated here”, concludes Mairam.
Then I heard the other side of the story. Natalia Zotova, analytic on migration of the Russian Ethnology and Anthropology Institute, claims that very often migrants are to blame for the negative attitude of locals towards them. The reason is that they escape legal ways of living and working in Russia.
“Right now, almost everybody who works in Russia do not wish to leave and re-enter the country, to collect necessary documents and refer to the corresponding government bodies. Simply because it is about putting efforts, spending money and a lot of time. Instead, they continue working underground, illegally as they got used. Not all the migrants are aware about the new regulations that are in force since January 15 of this year. Most of them work at construction sites; they do not leave the sites and do not have access to information, so how would they know? Moreover, migrants are afraid to contact the Migration Service Offices, as they mistrust them. They think if they come to Migration Office militia may arrest them.”
According to the new regulations, in order to legalize their status all the illegal migrants need to leave the country first. Upon re-entering the Russia they will need to receive new migration card and register within necessary state organs.
Aside the legal side, there is a problem of xenophobia and racism which often result in violent crimes. “Russia is for Russians!” With such slogan members of the nationalistic youth movement marched in the Centre of Moscow, on November 4, 2005. The government officials have ever since been criticized for allowing this kind of march.
According to the data provided by Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, the “skinheads” killed 51 persons in 2006. In total more than 310 persons were attacked and suffered. The motivation of this acts – victims do not look like Russians”.
Why the hatred towards foreigners is getting strong today?
Analytic of Moscow Bureau of Human Rights Semen Charnyi thinks that reinforcement of nationalism in Russia is mainly conditioned with the poor social status of many Russian citizens.
Svetlana Gannushkina, the leader of “Civil Cooperation” – organization that has been protecting the rights of refugees, says that skinheads are the most threatening group of young people, who should be taken under the monitoring. “However, today the negative attitude towards people of other races is not only connected with skinheads, but also with ordinary citizens” – says Svetlana.
“Unfortunatley, it is not the appearance that is represented by “pseudo patriotic youth”, but also to people of older generation like mine. Even those who are well familiar with the World War II at least from experiences of their parents, are fallen victims of politics in the mass media. One example, last year on Hitler’s birthday [April 20], all the migrants suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth. Then, I heard 70 years old woman saying “Look how fascists made “blacks” disappear”, it just astonished me”.
There is some good news too. According to Gannushkina, the Kremlin, which has not been paying enough attention to this problem, lately taking intensive efforts in fighting racial discrimination in Russia.
“Just few years ago it seemed like the judicial bodies were trying their best not to use the “Racial Hatred Based Attempts” article of the Criminal Code. Right now at least the fact that problem exists is being admitted,” said Gannushkina. She also warned that if not respond the problem can get out of control.
Nevertheless, Amnesty criticizes the authorities of “failing to provide protection or to investigate effectively many racially motivated attacks, including murders,” it says. “A small rise in prosecutions of race hate crimes and local initiatives such as increased policing were inadequate to address the scale of the problem, and there was no comprehensive programme to combat racist and xenophobic ideas and ideologies.»
Kubanychbek from Kyrgyzstan believes that those who first had negative attitude towards him as a migrant, whether neighbors, or employers, change their attitude once they get to know him well. When asked “How the problem of racial discrimination in Russia could be solved?, Kubanych answered: “Only way is to promote intercultural exchanges and understanding”
Why the hatred towards foreigners is getting strong today?
Analytic of Moscow Bureau of Human Rights Semen Charnyi thinks that reinforcement of nationalism in Russia is mainly conditioned with the poor social status of many Russian citizens.
Svetlana Gannushkina, the leader of “Civil Cooperation” – organization that has been protecting the rights of refugees, says that skinheads are the most threatening group of young people, who should be taken under the monitoring. “However, today the negative attitude towards people of other races is not only connected with skinheads, but also with ordinary citizens” – says Svetlana.
“Unfortunatley, it is not the appearance that is represented by “pseudo patriotic youth”, but also to people of older generation like mine. Even those who are well familiar with the World War II at least from experiences of their parents, are fallen victims of politics in the mass media. One example, last year on Hitler’s birthday [April 20], all the migrants suddenly disappeared from the face of the Earth. Then, I heard 70 years old woman saying “Look how fascists made “blacks” disappear”, it just astonished me”.
There is some good news too. According to Gannushkina, the Kremlin, which has not been paying enough attention to this problem, lately taking intensive efforts in fighting racial discrimination in Russia.
“Just few years ago it seemed like the judicial bodies were trying their best not to use the “Racial Hatred Based Attempts” article of the Criminal Code. Right now at least the fact that problem exists is being admitted,” said Gannushkina. She also warned that if not respond the problem can get out of control.
Nevertheless, Amnesty criticizes the authorities of “failing to provide protection or to investigate effectively many racially motivated attacks, including murders,” it says. “A small rise in prosecutions of race hate crimes and local initiatives such as increased policing were inadequate to address the scale of the problem, and there was no comprehensive programme to combat racist and xenophobic ideas and ideologies.»
Kubanychbek from Kyrgyzstan believes that those who first had negative attitude towards him as a migrant, whether neighbors, or employers, change their attitude once they get to know him well. When asked “How the problem of racial discrimination in Russia could be solved?, Kubanych answered: “Only way is to promote intercultural exchanges and understanding”
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