Thread: Illegal immigration damaging Russian economy - official

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28. ... e=11594842


Sep 27 2006 4:36PM
Illegal immigration damaging Russian economy - official

MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The 10 million illegal immigrants in Russia cause damages to the Russian economy to the tune of approximately 200 billion each year, Director of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) Konstantin Romodanovsky, said on Wednesday.

The FMS is drafting amendments to more than 100 legislative acts on migration, including changes to simplify registration and employment rules for immigrants, Romodanovsky told an international conference at the State Duma entitled "The World Community against the Globalization of Crime and Terrorism."

I was amazed at the number of Vietnamese who have made a life in Russia- they can often be seen selling jeans in the street markets. They nod and smile politely, but that has hardly endeared them to Russians, many of whom are barely eking out a living themselves. The big difference, is that the average Russians have sunk economically since 1990 while the Vietnamese and other foreigners are climbing.

The Chinese are crossing the border into Russia very aggressively, and they are so bent on making a profit in this new frontier-as they have done in Tibet while making it one of the most unattractive regions of Asia-that they seem oblivious to the hatred most Russians exhibit toward them. Also, many of the products sold in Russian markets are made in China, so as in the US, foreign labor invades one way or another. An influx of cheap products and labor draining money off to other countries can only pull the Russian people down even further.

It seems that not only the United States and Russia have problems with immigration but so does Germany and some Mediterrean Countries. In Germany it is the Turks who never left when their work visas were up and in the Mediterrean there is an onflux of those escaping areas of Africa. The waters are being constantly patrolled to catch the boat loads and most countries have or are in the process of tighening their immigration policies.