Controversy in Russia over migration quota

The Moscow city government's plan to reduce the quota in 2008 on the number of migrant workers from 750,000 to 250,000 has caused a stir in Russia's Federal Migration Service.

Sergey Boldyrev, deputy head of the FMS's migrant labor department says that Moscow's request may not be approved as the curb in the migrant quota could produce a labor shortage and increase illegal immigration. It could potentially force the city to request another adjustment in its quota the following year.

Moscow's chairman of the committee on inter-regional ties and ethnic policy, Alexey Alexandrov announced that the quota on migrant workers from whom Russia does not have a visa procedure would be cut to a third, and the number of workers from countries whose citizens require a visa would be reduced from 80,000 to 50,000. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov approved the plan.

Moscow has been critical of the FME's quota system, with Alexandrov saying that Moscow has issued 426,000 work permits to migrant workers this year, but employers have filed papers for only 111,000 foreign workers.

"There is no federal or regional entity that can say where more than 300,000 foreign workers are employed," he said.

Work permits are issued annually. If the plan is approved, more than 200,000 workers who currently have permits will not be able to renew them next year.

"Moscow is causing a problem for itself," Boldyrev stated. "It's not clear how the city will fill in the gap after such a quota reduction. The problem with internal migration is even worse than with foreign migration."