/ world today news/ In Russia, there is a problem with crime among migrants, as stated by the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin. According to him, since the beginning of the year there has been a significant increase in crimes committed by foreigners. He also pointed out that often visitors who do not speak Russian well and have a low level of education take the path of breaking the law. It also proposed to introduce a tax on hiring migrants for employers to stop their uncontrolled arrival in Russia.
The head of the SKR did not specify which countries are in question. However, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for 2022, the majority of foreigners in Russia in 2022 were citizens of three countries – Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. If we take those of the nearly 12 million Central Asians in the migration register who officially worked in the Russian Federation (and therefore stayed on its territory for a more or less long time), we get 10.3 million. Almost a million and a half of them have not been deregistered, which means they have not left Russia. Of course, there are also a certain number of illegal immigrants. Naturally, with such a large number of them, Central Asians often appear in crime reports.
We will see approximately the same share of immigrants from the countries of the Middle East and Africa in the case of Germany, France, the Netherlands or Sweden. So there is clearly a similarity with Western Europe in terms of the mass influx of guest workers and other migrants.
Often, people who come to us from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are by no means representatives of the elite. It is about low-educated villagers who cannot find a living in their homeland or even hide from our own justice system. European countries have recently also faced something similar and also often host more than questionable individuals. By the way, a terrorist attack in Sweden in 2017 was carried out by a resident of Uzbekistan.
It will not be difficult to give examples of crimes with a clear “migration” trace in both the Russian and the European case. And then another question arises: to what extent do the newcomers from Central Asia, who have already received Russian citizenship, fit into our society? I remember the story about who was given passports in the Kaluga region, because of which the local governor Vladislav Shapsha withdrew the region from the program for the resettlement of compatriots. In addition, the deputy of the State Duma Alexander Hinshtein and the member of the presidential KCHR Marina Akhmedova drew attention to two more things: the risk of turning certain areas into ghettos for migrants, as well as the poor command of the Russian language by children from the countries of Central Asia.
And again – it is easy to find something in common with what is happening in Europe. For example, in Vienna, German is not a native language for every third student, and in Austria they are raising the alarm about this. For the ghettos, it’s clear – just take a train to Paris, Amsterdam or Stockholm and get off at the station in the wrong direction. And immediately there is a feeling that you are somewhere in the Middle East or Africa. Local Europeans from such areas try to move out and take the children from the local schools.
Another problem was outlined by the chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Kiril Kabanov. In the 30 years since the collapse of the USSR, not only a generation that does not know the Russian language has grown up in the same Central Asia. In the local textbooks, they are taught that both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union oppressed them, turned them into their colony. As a result, a young man who grew up with such an interpretation of history has a bad attitude towards Russia.
Again we will find similarities with what is happening in Europe. Migrants from the countries of the Middle East and Africa coming to France or Denmark feel no gratitude towards them. They remind Europeans of the years of colonialism, and the slave trade, and participation in the destruction of Iraq, Syria and Libya. Of course, the countries of Central Asia were not colonies of any kind, and Russia and the USSR were not doing what the Europeans were doing on other continents. But all this was not explained in time to the young migrants.
It turns out that Russia has succeeded in repeating many of the mistakes of the European approach to migrants. However, not all. For example, we didn’t just give visitors tons of benefits for no reason. Such large immigrant ghettos as in Paris and Amsterdam have not yet arisen in the Russian Federation. The same Bastrykin quite regularly cites figures showing problems with crime among visitors. In Europe, officials do this much less often. Finally, we did not have a migration crisis like the one that happened in 2015-2016.
Still, there is food for thought. There are problems with the assimilation of visitors – both those who remain citizens of their countries and those who receive Russian passports. That is why it is necessary to tighten the migration policy, including the requirements for Russian language proficiency. Let there be as many visitors from the same Central Asia as they can be integrated into our society, or at least trace what they do with us. And the labor market must become more transparent to avoid “empty” employment, which is associated with many costs.
And this does not negate the fact that Russia has interests in Central Asia and they must be defended. That students there should be drawn into our universities to produce a loyal local elite. This does not negate the fact that the Russian language should be promoted there. But this should not be done at the cost of turning Russia into a broken yard and reducing the level of security on our streets. Moreover, the surplus of migrants in the country will not bring foreign policy dividends and thus we will not ensure loyalty among the local elites.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel or in Telegram:
#Russia #disorganized #yard #Europe
