Labor migrants should leave families at home – Medvedev
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has floated a handful of ideas to tackle migration-related problems, including preventing seasonal workers from bringing their families into the country.
Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the remarks on Thursday as he spoke to journalists with the TASS news agency. The ex-president said he was a proponent of tougher measures to control migration, including preventing migrants from bringing in “nine children and several wives” to the country.
“I am a proponent of this, as applied to schools, migrant families, enclaves. Of course, we won’t be able to overcome every tendency there, but what can be done: if a person comes to us for seasonal work – why the hell does he drag his family along with him?” Medvedev said.
The ex-president admitted there are a “few obstacles” on the way to enacting tougher migration control measures, including bilateral agreements with several “friendly countries” among Russia’s neighbors. While the former leader did not elaborate, he was apparently referring primarily to the Central Asian ex-Soviet states.
However, Medvedev expressed confidence that such states would ultimately accept the proposed shifts in Russia’s policies, since the problem of excess labor in those countries would otherwise not be alleviated.
The former president also urged tougher control on the process of integrating the children of migrants into Russian society, namely “making” them learn Russian at school while taking measures against those unwilling to learn it.
“We need to gradually, without being rude, force them to learn the language. It’s impossible when a child comes, and in some classes three quarters of the people, first-graders, don’t speak Russian. We need to gradually force them to learn. And those who don’t learn – well, don’t let them in,” Medvedev warned.
Earlier this year, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin announced plans to tighten the country’s immigration laws. At the time, 25 draft bills aimed at regulating migration, the legal status of foreign citizens, and the granting of citizenship were on the agenda at the lower house, he said.
The proposal to ban migrants from bringing in families was floated last month by a group of MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR). The MPs argued that low-skilled workers should be stripped of the right to bring their families to Russia, since it only leads to “an uncontrolled migration influx and social tension.”
