The migration paradox

Research Fellow in Business, Labour and Society in Transition Hanna Danilovich argues that the politics of migration is not restricted to the European Union.

When we talk about illegal migration and border control we tend to think about ‘Fortress Europe’, Schengen being torn to pieces, and the controversial patrol of the border between Mexico and the US. In fact, it’s a global phenomenon. In research presented at the Interdisciplinary Labour Studies Group, I demonstrated that the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), most of them once part of the Soviet Union, face similar problems. In the core of Eurasia, labour migration confronts a bundle of policies aimed at depriving workers of essential rights, preventing their free circulation, and milking money out of their meagre incomes.

Paradox

The ‘paradox’ is that the CIS is a political entity where internal circulation of workers should be unfettered. The CIS also overlaps with the Eurasian Economic Union, which links Russia with many former Soviet republics. As one would expect, Russia is the most popular destination. Unskilled, or rather menial labour, is required. Russians do not work for such meagre pay, but even small remittances make a big difference to places like, say, Tajikistan, the top-world remittance receiving economy, where this source of revenue represents 52 per cent of its GDP. And that’s only the ‘trackable’ remittances.

Grey zone

Notwithstanding filling a gap in the labour market, immigrants in Russia face a hard time. In fact, it’s easier for a Mexican to move to the US than for a Tajiki to do so in Russia. Regulation for work ‘patent’ is more stringent and requires a number of expenses, among which anticipating income tax payment to the state and buying a medical insurance, that migrants can barely afford. In the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron has suggested that migrants who do not speak English might be expelled. In Russia, patents are also conditional to passing a demanding test of Russian language, culture and history. With such strict measures corruption is rampant, but irregularity keeps workers in a grey zone, as much, or more, as it would happen to irregulars in the European Union or in the United States.

The politics of migration can easily cross the borders of very different political entities throughout the world.

In the CIS, the question of migration constrains any project of true economic integration, much as it allows Western right-wing politicians to challenge the viability of the European Union. The politics of migration, one aimed at rendering these workers more precarious while denying them citizenship, seems to be based on a set of ideas and policies that, ironically, can easily cross the borders of very different political entities throughout the world.

This article originally appeared on medium.com. The Interdisciplinary Labour Studies Group convenes monthly at Middlesex University to discuss research that assesses the place of labour and working people in society.