April 2004 Volume 11 Number 2

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President Vladimir Putin in January 2004 said that Russia "is in need of inflow of migrants [but] order should be established" in managing migration. He continued: "Control over illegal migration is a relatively new problem for Russia, but it has acquired top priority over recent years."

Russia is the world's largest country, almost twice the size of Canada or the United States, and has land borders with 14 countries, the most of any country. Russians were just over 50 percent of the USSR population, and when the USSR collapsed, some 25 million ethnic Russians were in the 14 non-Russian republics, where they were ranged from almost 40 percent of the residents of Kazakhstan to two percent of the residents of Armenia (almost half of the ethnic Russians outside Russia were in the Ukraine). Russians outside Russia tended to be in urban areas.

Russia's population fell from 149 million in 1992 to 144 million in 2002, but most Russians do not want immigration. Instead, nationalism and xenophobia are prompting attacks on foreigners in Russia. Harassment and beatings of ethnic minorities and dark-skinned foreigners occur so often that most Russian news media pay scant attention; some are logged at http://www.africana.ru Foreign students believe that a fire that broke out in a Moscow dorm on November 24 2003, killing 43 foreign students, was not accidental. In Voronezh, a city south of Moscow with 1,500 foreign students, there have been 70 attacks in the past five years that resulted in seven deaths.

The Russian government enacted a law against hate crimes in 2002, but it has had little deterrent effect. Officials say that skinhead extremist groups have 20,000 members in Moscow, and that they target Indians, Africans, Chinese, Central and Southeast Asians, Gypsies, and darker-skinned Russian citizens from Chechnya.

Moldova. Moldova is one of the smallest and most densely populated countries that arose from the breakup of the USSR, and 500,000 to one million of the 4.3 million residents are believed to be working abroad at least temporarily. About 80 percent of those working abroad, estimated at 234,000 to 600,000, left as tourists, and most are not employed legally in destination countries that include Russia (250,000), Ukraine, Romania and the southern European countries of Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Moldova has bilateral labor agreements with Russia and Italy, and Moldovans can travel without visas to Russia and Romania; many speak Russian or Romanian.

Moldova's economy provided intermediate goods for manufacturing elsewhere in the USSR, and the collapse of trade put many people out of work. The area with most of the country's industry and Russian speakers split off from Moldova and called itself the Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic. In Moldova, incomes fell sharply, and polls suggest that at least 50 percent of Moldovans want to emigrate, including 10 to 20 percent who would like to settle abroad permanently.

Migration Department Director Valery Muntyanu (Valeriu Munteanu) in February 2004 reported that unemployment had driven 500,000 Moldovans abroad for jobs, and that 90 percent of migrants were working abroad illegally. Many of the travel agents helping Moldovans to leave as tourists have had their licenses revoked, he said. In 2003, some 1.8 million Moldovans left the country and 95,000 did not return.

A series of Italian-Moldovan agreements signed in November 2003 anticipate allowing some of the 150,000 Moldovans in Italy, most in the Milan area, to legalize their status- those who were employed in Italy before June 1, 2002. In addition, 700 Moldovans will be allowed to work as guest workers in Italy in 2004. The Italian hotel association Federalberghi announced that Italian hotels could request workers through Moldovan employment agencies.

Moldovans abroad remitted $270 million in 2002, equivalent to 17 percent of the country's $1.7 billion GDP. Official remittances are estimated to be $320 million in 2003, and perhaps double that if informal transfers are included. Remittances are used for consumption by the families that receive them, and are also spent to improve housing. Remittance investments are apparently limited, which is one reason why remittances are seen as a source of inflation, putting upward pressure on the exchange rate and complicating the provision of social assistance.

Moldova is poor; an estimated 60 percent of residents have incomes below the poverty line of L196 ($14) per person per month. Economic growth has been six to seven percent a year, but Moldova remains highly indebted, with general government debt almost equal to the country's GDP, making the country dependent on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The young people most likely to emigrate do not support the ex-communist parties in power, whose slogan seems to be that "emigration is better than revolution." Moldova is the only European country with a ruling party that still calls itself communist, and where new Lenin statues are erected.

Moldova is a source of women and children who are trafficked abroad. Most Moldovans live in farming villages, and many respond to ads placed by "tourist companies" or "employment abroad agencies" that offer $100 to come to the capital, Chisinau, for interviews. If they sign contracts to be maids or hostesses abroad, they are often "sold" to gangs that take them via Romania to Italy or Turkey, where they are resold, so that the women arrive in destination countries with large debts, and are ordered to work them off as prostitutes.

Immigration. Moldova sets an annual immigration quota, 2,114 for 2004; in 2003, there were 1,442 immigrants, down 30 percent from the previous year, including 390 for family unification, 390 for educational establishments, and 479 foreign workers. Moldova gets a few asylum seekers, and in February 2004 there were about 200 refugees in Moldova-- 16 asylum applicants from Chechnya reported getting $25 a month from Moldovan authorities while their applications were pending.

In November 2003, it was announced that Czechs would teach Moldovans how to guard their green border, how to improve the asylum proceedings and how to accept the return of citizens apprehended abroad. Some 3,000 Moldovans were apprehended in the Czech Republic in 2000, but the number fell to under 300 in 2003.

Romania. Some 1.7 million Romanians are believed to be abroad, with the leading countries of destination Italy, Spain, Germany, Israel, Hungary, Greece, Belgium and Austria. According to an IOM survey, about 72 percent have work contracts, and they stay abroad an average of two years.

March McDonald, "Surge of nationalism sparks xenophobia, ethnic violence in Russia, Miami Herald, March 23, 2004. Kevin O'Flynn, "Racial tensions run high in Voronezh," Moscow Times, March 3, 2004. "Unemployment drives people out of Moldova," Tass, February 25, 2004. Mark Mackinnon, 'Why are you here, Mr. Nigger? Back in the USSR, racial tolerance was a top priority," The Globe and Mail, January 31, 2004.