MOSCOW DELEGATION SEEKS TO RECRUIT ARMENIAN WORKERS

RIA Novosti
May 21 2008
Russia

MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) – A delegation from Moscow will arrive
in Armenia for a six-day visit on Thursday to encourage Armenians
to work in the Russian capital as part of a pilot project to boost
Russia’s migrant workforce.

Last April Russia toughened its migration policy, banning migrants
from working in retail markets. According to various estimates,
around 20,000 non-Russians were employed in Moscow markets alone
prior to the ban.

"If we do not switch to organized labor recruitment on the territories
of the donor countries, the labor market in Moscow will continue to
be spontaneous and poorly regulated," said Olga Veldina, a spokeswoman
for the Moscow committee for interregional links and national policy.

The Moscow city government has launched similar projects to attract
foreign workers from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, mainly in construction,
while another Central Asian country, Uzbekistan is prepared to
follow suit.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, particularly Moscow,
saw a strong inflow of migrant workers. Many of them stayed in the
country illegally because official registration processes are too
complicated and time-consuming.

Nearly 1 million foreign workers were officially registered in Moscow
in 2007 with a total population of 10.4 million.