Bloomberg profiles some migrant workers in Russia and reaches an interesting conclusion – Russia needs workers to feed the economic boom, migrant workers are able to fill the void and do jobs Russians themselves are not willing to do, yet there is a growing social pressure against them. Interestingly, as the article notes, while the law does set forth some criteria on employing foreigners, it is inefficient to the point that people find it easier to employ workers illegaly, even faced with prospects of high fines (or bribes).
While Russia has been dealing with foreign workers at lower-end jobs for some time, President Putin recently spoke against foreign experts in higher positions as well.
And for those of you who think that income levels are related to standards of living, here is an outlier:
Life expectancy for Russian men is 59 years, two years less than for Uzbek men, even though Russia’s per-capita income is six times Uzbekistan’s $2,000…
Published Date: October 23, 2007