The number of foreign nationals who came to Russia for work purposes, last year amounted to 3.47 million, a third more than the previous year. Citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan became the leaders among all migrant workers who came to the country, according to a study of the analytical service of the audit and consulting network Finexpertiza, which is available to TASS.
"In 2022, 13 million foreigners crossed the Russian border, 3.47 million of whom indicated work as the purpose of arrival, or more than a quarter (26.6%) of all those entering, according to the Federal Security Service Border Service. This is 33.5% or 871 thousand more than in 2021: then about every fifth foreigner (21.4%), or 2.6 million people declared employment as the purpose of arrival," said in materials.
In 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, the influx of foreign workers fell to 1.1 million (11.2%, or one in nine of all those who entered). In pre-pandemic 2019, 4.1 million foreigners (12.5%, or one in eight) came in to work.
"Compared to pre-pandemic times in 2022, the total number of foreigners entering the Russian Federation was 2.5 times lower, while the number of migrant workers specifically decreased much less significantly - only by 15.3% (or 626,000 people)," the study notes.
At the same time, the number of foreign nationals traveling to Russia for tourism has decreased significantly (by 96% or 4.9 million), for business meetings (89.7% or 3.1 million), as well as for private visits (61.2% or 10.3 million).
President of Finexpertiza Elena Trubnikova noted that the deficit of blue-collar workers, typical for the Russian labor market, increased in 2022.
"In the field of blue-collar jobs the share of foreign workers is traditionally high, the need for which has now become even greater. Against the background of staff shortages, salaries of couriers, drivers, repairmen, storekeepers, loaders and construction workers began to rise. The Russian market became more attractive for foreigners due to the strengthening of the ruble, due to which the salary in terms of foreign currencies has increased significantly," she said.
Roots of the labor force
The year 2022 saw a significant increase in the influx of migrant workers from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the analytical service said. Also, the number of workers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Moldova, Turkey, Turkmenistan and China significantly increased. At the same time, citizens of Armenia, Ukraine, Serbia, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Czech Republic, Austria and the Netherlands came to Russia to work less frequently.
"In 2022, the largest share of all foreigners who came to Russia to work, had Uzbek citizenship (41.9% or 1.45 million people), more than a quarter were from Tajikistan (28.4% or 986.7 thousand people), in the third place were natives of Kyrgyzstan (16.2% or 562.6 thousand people)," said in Finexpertiza.
In addition, quite significant shares have people from Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Turkey, China, Vietnam and Moldova are also in the top ten key donor countries.
"Natives of other countries altogether accounted for 1.4% or 47.2 thousand workers," noted in the study.
Not only citizens of former Soviet republics and geographically close countries arrived to Russia for employment in 2022, but also people from abroad, including natives of Serbia (3.6 thousand), Germany (3.2 thousand), India (2.8 thousand), South Korea (2.1 thousand), Italy (2.1 thousand), France (1.9 thousand), Great Britain (1.5 thousand), Lithuania (1.3 thousand), and Finland (1.2 thousand).
Representatives of the countries, supported the sanctions, were also among those who came to Russia to work, namely, the USA (978 people), Poland (779 people), Japan (756 people) and Canada (404 people). One each from Mali, Chad, Cape Verde, Botswana, Vanuatu, Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea came to work in Russia.
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Based on materials from TASS