Some ways to improve the effectiveness of Russia’s migration law policy

Iakovlev-Chernyshev Vasilii Aleksandrovich Graduate student; Department of Theory of Law and Public Law Disciplines; Sochi Branch of the All-Russian State University of Justice 42 Dagomysskaya str., Sochi, Krasnodar Territory, 354057, Russia basil.yakovlev@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The relevance of the study of the issues of legal regulation of migration is due to the fact that the migration legal policy of the Russian Federation is currently undergoing significant changes. The need for its radical rethinking was pointed out by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the expanded board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, held on April 2, 2024 ^[1]. Updating approaches to migration legal policy, taking into account modern threats, is largely caused by the problems of effective control over migration processes. The difficulties associated with the regulation of migration processes are primarily due to their heterogeneity, as a result of which Russia's modern migration legal policy covers many diverse areas. Based on the above, the purpose of this study is to analyze the specifics of the legal regulation of certain types of migration and to develop proposals for improving Russia's migration legal policy, taking into account the multidimensional nature of migration relations as an object of regulation.

The methodological basis of the research is a systematic, complex and specific historical approaches. The research uses formal-legal, system-structural, hermeneutical and other methods of scientific knowledge in various combinations. The legal analysis of federal laws, by-laws, strategic planning documents was carried out, data from federal statistical observation, publications of scientists and experts on migration and migration legal policy were studied.

Migration is caused by various reasons, including: the inability to earn enough money at the place of residence, the desire to leave for places where you can get a high-quality education, build a successful career, the presence of environmental problems, man-made and natural disasters, etc. The multidimensional nature of migration relations means that there are many types, types, forms of migration that can be classified according to different criteria. In our opinion, the research results of L. L. Rybakovsky, who proposed the following classification criteria, are of interest.:

- according to the status of the territory (crossing state or administrative borders), migration is divided into two types: internal and external;

- according to the target orientation, migration is divided into many types (labor, educational, recreational, etc.);

- according to the status of a settlement, there are different types of migration within and between urban and rural settlements;

- according to the level of organization, there is a distinction between organized and unorganized forms of migration;

- according to the degree of legality, there is a distinction between legal and illegal forms of migration;

- according to the method of movement, migration is divided into voluntary, forced and forced ^{[2, p. 14]}.

It seems that from the point of view of the formation of migration legal policy, the division of migration according to the status of the territory into two types is of paramount importance: internal and external. This is due to the fact that both types of migration have their own characteristics and are characterized by specific problems that require appropriate legal regulation. Thus, for Russia at present, the primary problem is to ensure effective control over migrants from foreign countries, primarily from neighboring countries, since, on the one hand, migrants accelerate the development of the economy while actually carrying out their work, on the other hand, unadapted and poorly integrated migrants undermine migration, public, state, and national security. Russia. At the same time, the importance of legal regulation of internal migration should not be underestimated, as it is also characterized by a number of serious problems. For example, its negative consequences include the outflow of the population from not the most successful regions of Russia, which leads to an even more significant decrease in their potential compared to other regions ^[3]. The migration of the indigenous population from rural areas to urban areas is also an acute issue ^[4].

In our opinion, it is inappropriate to address all types of migration identified in the scientific literature within the framework of this study, but we should only focus on some of them, which are the most relevant and problematic for the Russian Federation.

Labor migration. Hundreds of thousands of foreign citizens enter Russia every year for the purpose of working. The growing number of foreign citizens arriving in the country cannot but affect public, state, and national security. It is no coincidence that the concept of "migration security" has appeared in the scientific literature in recent decades ^{[5, 6]}.

The need for more people engaged in labor activities in order to achieve strategic goals and solve the tasks of the state, and sometimes national survival in the face of constant economic, military, informational and other influences forces the country's leadership to seek a balance between ensuring the safety of Russian citizens and economic expediency in using foreign labor. This, in particular, was stated in the report of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, I. V. Krasnov, at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Prosecutor General's Office on March 26, 2024 ^[7].

However, a significant increase in the number of crimes committed by migrants ^[8] and the infiltration of terrorist groups in labor migration flows ^[9] cause a wide public outcry, which is fraught with extremely negative consequences that threaten the existence of Russian society and the state. It is no coincidence that Decree No. 1124 of the President of the Russian Federation dated 12/28/2024 "On Approval of the Strategy for Countering Extremism in the Russian Federation" pays special attention to migration issues. Equally relevant and urgent is the development of a comprehensive state strategy on labor migration.

According to E. V. Vinogradova, several strategies have been developed in Russia, proposed by various organizations and experts, some of which are aimed at:

- development of a system of professional training and retraining of migrants;

- Strengthening the legal protection of migrant workers;

- Expanding opportunities for legal employment of migrant workers;

- support of social projects aimed at the integration of migrant workers into Russian society ^{[10, p. 238]}.

It should be noted that in 2017, the Center for Strategic Research, in its proposals for the migration strategy of Russia until 2035, emphasized that "the policy of internal migration remained outside the field of state interests" ^{[11, p. 9]}. In our opinion, on this issue, we can agree with the opinion of A. A. Andreeva, who emphasizes that international treaties and Russian legislation give priority to external labor migrants, but at the same time there is little elaboration of the problems of internal labor migration, which affects the quality of migration legal policy planning and leads to a lack of understanding of the possibilities for a more comprehensive and effective involvement of national labor resources ^{[12, p. 20]}.

A 2024 study by ACRA and Strategy Partners consulting company based on data from the International Labor Organization, Rosstat, and the Ministry of Labor notes that by 2030 Russia has the most sought-after age group in the labor market (30-39 years old) it will decrease by 7.2 million people ^[13]. The problem of labor shortage (4.8 million by the end of 2023, according to the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences) can be overcome by involving older workers, who make up 5 million of the 7.5 million internal labor reserves of the state, and changing the approaches of employers, who often refuse to hire these categories of people ^[13]. At the same time, the effect of these measures will be short-term and will not help to cope with a number of negative trends without overcoming the problem of natural population decline, support by public and private actors for production automation projects, increasing the level of productivity of each employee, further development of healthcare, biotechnology, and genetic engineering.

Taking into account the fact that the state does not refuse to attract a considerable number of labor migrants, it seems logical to adopt a law aimed at the integration and adaptation of migrants. If we turn to the materials of the round table "Social and cultural adaptation and integration of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation", held on March 22, 2023 at the initiative of the State Duma Committee on Nationalities, we will see as one of the recommendations based on its results a proposal to develop a basic law "On social and cultural adaptation and integration of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation". Of the Russian Federation" ^{[14, p. 73]}. Earlier in 2017, the Federal Agency for Nationalities of the Russian Federation developed a draft federal law with the same name ^[15], but it was never adopted. Another problem is the selection of personnel necessary for the economy, rather than the spontaneous recruitment of foreign citizens who do not have the necessary competencies. Unfortunately, the aspect of internal labor migration is not reflected in these discussions, which also has a fundamental impact on the need for certain personnel. However, addressing these issues in the field of labor migration requires systematic and integrated approaches that are not yet visible.

Educational migration. Educational organizations have a tremendous impact not only on the professional growth of a person, but also on a person's worldview, since, touching on a wide range of spheres of public relations, they inevitably form certain value orientations. The scientific literature suggests that if in the first twenty years migrants arriving from the post-Soviet countries had a good knowledge of the Russian language and similar cultural values, then the situation worsened later. New migrants are characterized by an insufficient level of education, legal culture, and knowledge of the Russian language ^{[16, p. 64]}.

At the present stage, the importance of preserving historical memory and cultural values is significantly increasing, as neighboring countries, including those that actively interact with Russia, seek to fill the cultural and humanitarian space with their ideological and ideological messages, which are often far from harmless to Russian citizens, society and the state. The declining role of the Russian language, Russian educational programs, and Russian culture in foreign countries, primarily in the near abroad, significantly affects the possibility of integration and adaptation of migrants in Russian society, and from a political point of view may threaten the territorial integrity and state sovereignty of Russia. A significant problem may be the admission to an educational organization of a foreign citizen who has already formed a negative and consumerist attitude towards Russian society and the state. According to the report of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, in 2023, 355,765 foreign citizens studied in educational institutions of higher education ^{[17, p. 94]}. The sub-item draws attention to itself. "b" clause 3 of Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 05/07/2024 No. 309 "On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and for the future up to 2036", indicating the need to increase the number of international students in higher Russian educational institutions and scientific organizations to at least 500 thousand people by 2030.

As noted by A. A. Samitova, there are a number of legal problems in the field of educational migration that affect the implementation of migration legal policy.:

- There is no concept of "educational migration" in legislation and strategic planning documents;

- foreign citizens entering educational institutions arrive in the territory of the Russian Federation not on an educational visa, but on a tourist visa, or sometimes on a private visa;

- it is difficult for foreign citizens studying in educational institutions to legally work at the same time as they receive education, and if such work is carried out illegally, the educational organization may be fined, etc. ^{[18, pp. 198-199]}.

T. K. Rostovskaya, V. I. Skorobogataya cite as examples of problems in the field of educational migration:

- participation in the legal regulation of a number of executive authorities whose actions are insufficiently coordinated;

- the use of strict procedures in the recognition of foreign education;

- weak use of digital tools (the need to expand high-quality digital educational content, the possibility of using and resetting online courses, etc.) ^{[19, p. 108]}.

In our opinion, educational migrants, provided they receive initial training that allows them to adapt and integrate into Russian society, are one of the most preferred categories of migrants, since: 1) educational migrants are trained according to Russian standards, which allows employers to attract personnel who understand Russian requirements and realities; 2) educational migrants, upon returning to their home country, can engage in activities that will help Russia to better select people who want to study in our country; 3) obtaining Russian education by migrants allows in the future to improve relations with the countries from which they leave.

At the same time, it is important that the recruitment of foreign citizens wishing to study in Russia is not evaluated only by a quantitative indicator, since in this case it will be difficult to achieve the necessary results in terms of the quality of education and the level of qualifications of such persons.

Ecological migration. Environmental issues and environmental safety are among the priorities of state policy in Russia. However, the problems associated with environmental migration are not always fully understood. Today, there are a number of subsystems of the unified state environmental monitoring system, which are indicated, for example, in the Report of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation for 2022 ^{[20, pp. 584-585]}. Meanwhile, as noted by N. I. Kuznetsova and M. N. Urda, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 31.12.2018 No. 622 "On the Concept of the State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025" and Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 02.07.2021 No. 400 "On the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation" do not pay attention to environmental migration issues As a result, there is no monitoring of environmental migration ^{[21, p. 36]}.

Yu. G. Shpakovsky and V. I. Yevtushenko draw attention to the fact that currently the legislative regulation related to environmental migrants is fragmented, which does not allow legislatively fixing the legal status of such a category of persons ^{[22, pp. 173-174]}.

The issue of the possibility of classifying persons who leave their places of residence due to environmental reasons as ecological refugees remains controversial in the scientific literature, as well as the distinction in this case between the concepts of "ecological migrant" and "ecological refugee" ^{[23, pp. 106-107]}.

An especially acute problem for Russia may be the intensification of migration of the population of foreign countries due to water scarcity, which can lead to multimillion flows of migrants to our country. At the same time, there is a problem of migration of the indigenous population for environmental reasons, which can have a negative effect on the adequate functioning of society and the State as a whole. In this regard, monitoring environmental migration is necessary to protect Russia's vital interests and ensure migration, public, state, national and other types of security.

Equally important is the issue of ensuring the protection of the rights of Russian citizens affected by environmental disasters. Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 28, 2019 No. 1928 "On Approval of the Rules for the Provision of Other Inter-Budgetary Transfers from the Federal Budget, the Source of Financial Support for which are Budgetary Allocations from the Reserve Fund of the Government of the Russian Federation, to the Budgets of the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation for Financial Support of Certain Measures to Eliminate Natural and Man-made Emergencies, Compensation Payments to Individuals and Legal Entities who damage was caused as a result of a terrorist act, and compensation for damage caused during the suppression of a terrorist act by lawful actions" fixes monetary amounts that partially compensate for the damage caused by environmental disasters, but these payments are insignificant compared to the consequences that may occur.

Thus, the conducted research allows us to draw the following main conclusions:

- Russian legislation and strategic planning documents lack sufficiently comprehensive regulation of certain areas of public relations related to migration (for example, labor, environmental, educational migration), which does not allow us to develop effective ways to solve existing problems.;

- in the field of legal regulation of migration, priority attention is paid to migrants coming from foreign countries, and internal labor migration is underestimated, which can significantly affect the formation of the domestic labor market.;

- The legislation has not sufficiently elaborated on the differentiation of the legal status of migrants depending on the target orientation of migration, which hinders the formation of effective legal regulation and control over migration processes.

Taking into account the above, the following measures are proposed to improve the effectiveness of migration legal policy:

- consolidation in the new Concept of state migration policy (its adoption is expected in 2025) and in the legislation of the types of migration, categories of migrants (labor, educational, environmental migrants, etc.) in order to clarify their legal status depending on the purpose of stay in Russia;

- development of a state strategy for regulating labor, educational, and environmental migration, taking into account their specifics;

- Adoption of the law on social and cultural adaptation and integration of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation;

- implementation of more active pre-immigration training for foreign citizens, as well as the preservation and further promotion of the Russian language, Russian education and culture in foreign countries;

- improvement of statistical accounting of internal and external migration indicators in the context of migrant categories.