As Russia faces an economic downturn, migrant workers are paying a brutal price, 9 September 2020

Over the past month, migrant workers in Russia have faced retaliatory round-ups, harassment and brutal treatment at the hands of police. This campaign follows official comments on "rising migrant crime" due to the COVID-inspired economic downturn.

In Russia, diverting public frustration over domestic economic and political problems to a designated “enemy” is nothing new. In the past decade, politicians and state-friendly media have variously highlighted a revolving carousel of groups - migrants, LGBT people and critics branded as a “fifth column” - as scapegoats to shield the government from criticism over economic hardships or problems in domestic or foreign policy.

In the wake of Russia’s Covid-19 economic downturn, we’re witnessing a new spin of the carousel. This time the target is, once again, migrant workers. The sectors of Russia’s economy that employ the largest numbers of migrant workers, such as construction and hospitality, were also hit by lockdowns. Many employers had to lay people off.

New research shows that the pandemic’s economic dimension hit a majority of people in Russia hard, but that migrant workers have been hit the hardest. In April and May this year, researchers at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration conducted a self-selecting online survey of 2,074 people - migrants born in and/or nationals of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and locals born in Russia. The study found that 75% of surveyed migrants had been either laid off or forced into unpaid leave, and over 50% had lost all sources of income and were barely surviving. One of the key conclusions of the research was that despite fears and expectations to the contrary, criminality among migrants has not increased. Instead, researchers found, migrant communities had developed solidarity and mutual support as a collective survival strategy.