Russians watching images of the events being played out in the streets of Paris have reacted with an odd mixture of smugness and alarm. Long irritated with Western criticism over the conflict in Chechnya, many Russians believe Parisians may now understand their plight. The element of alarm comes from the fact that more than a million illegal migrants -- many of them from the North Caucasus -- live among Muscovites. Russia's nationalists believe they have the answer.
Like France and most of Western Europe, legal and illegal immigration in Russia cuts a number of ways. There is a need for laborers. Russia's demographic situation is becoming a national security issue. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia's population has declined approximately a million people a year and this trend is expected to continue into the coming decades. To supplement this loss, businesses have turned to hiring illegal immigrants.
According to Vyacheslav Postavnin, head of the Federal Migration Service, "Today, 80 percent of all (illegal) migrant workers in Russia are from the former Soviet republics, and, at the moment, there is no alternative to recruiting fresh labor except through migrants."
The number of migrant workers in Russia is anywhere from 3 million to 15 million people. A million are believed to live in Moscow providing the city with sorely needed unskilled labor. Needless to say, these workers have little, if any, legal protection and suffer from the whims of employers. They also face the very real possibility of deportation.
Becoming a legal immigrant in Russia, particularly in Moscow, is a daunting task. So much so, Moscow's official 80,000 migrant quota was not met due to the bureaucratic labyrinth to become a legal and working resident. Businesses cannot be really bothered with the necessary paperwork and the fine for using illegal labor is usually a trifle.
To partly remedy this situation, the FMS has proposed an amnesty to give legal status to a million migrant laborers next year. The amnesty may partly address Russia's need for laborers in light of its shrinking population, but dealing with the social and political implications are unclear at best.
Images of racial unrest and social disorder in Paris coincide with Moscow's election campaign for seats in the city's local legislature to be held Dec. 2. Playing the race card is front and center for the ultra-nationalist Rodina (Motherland Bloc).
Rodina, sponsored by the Kremlin in 2003 to steal votes away from the communists in parliamentary election in the same year, started out as the party against the small group of super-wealthy individuals known as oligarchs. With the oligarchs cowed and one, notably Mikhail Khodorkovsky, serving a prison sentence, Rodina now appears intent to capture the nationalist platform to the point of promoting xenophobia.
Rodina is running a political ad on a nationwide television station that is patently racist and an open bid to make illegal immigration its calling card among voters. The ad features male characters resembling individuals from the Caucasus, people who make up a large percentage of Moscow's immigrant population. They are portrayed eating a watermelon, throwing the rinds on the street as a young Slavic-looking woman is pushing a cart with a baby. Rodina's leader Dmitry Rogozin and Yuri Popov, a pro-Rodina Moscow city parliamentarian, are presented on the scene displaying expression of disgust.
Rogozin confronts the "Caucasians," telling them to attend to the litter they have left behind. When the offending characters ignore his demands, Yuri Popov, local parliamentarian and police general, enters the fray by asking angrily: "Do you understand Russian?" The ad ends with Popov's repeating the question as Rodina's campaign slogan. Rodina's ad has been referred to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office for inciting social and racial hatred.
Public opinion surveys suggest that Muscovites are prepared to support the Kremlin's pedestal party in the December Moscow city vote with 21 percent. Liberal party Yabloko is expected to garner 9 percent of the vote and Rodina is trailing third place with just 8 percent. Election laws require that a party attract a minimum of 10 percent of the vote to win a seat. Analysts will surely be watching to determine if Rodina's open racism will be enough to push the party above the 10 percent level.
The Kremlin has been woefully slow and indecisive in dealing with increased racial tensions. Attacks on foreigners and people of color are a sad and worsening reality. One the one hand, the Kremlin is painfully aware that Russia is very much a multicultural and multiracial society and in need of as many in the workforce that it can attract and/or tolerate without putting too much pressure on still very weak social services. On the other hand, it is keen to promote a new sense of Russian national pride.
To avoid the calamity being played out in the nocturnal streets of Paris, the Kremlin really has no choice. If Russia is to continue modernizing and expanding its economy, foreign workers are necessary and should be made welcomed. Strengthening the legal system is burning priority for this to happen.
The inflammatory politicking of Rodina is a glaring and self-serving exercise that undermines Russia's stability. Originally a Kremlin creation, this party and its leaders should be severely disciplined. If the Kremlin can't or won't do either, it will be doing nothing less than setting its own house on fire - no different than the burning cars in the suburbs of Paris.
__________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com