Strong ruble drew large amount of migrants in second quarter of 2022
Over 3.12 million people entered Russia in the second quarter of 2022 to work, TASS reported on Monday citing data from the FinExpertiza audit and consulting network.
“In the second quarter of 2022 there were 4.16 million foreigners on migration registration… while 3.12 million people (75%) indicated work as the purpose of arrival. This is a record high quarterly value for the entire period of available statistics since 2017,” the analytics firm said in its report, seen by TASS.
The number of arrivals seeking work is a third more than the same time last year, when 2.34 million foreigners came to work in Russia.
According to the head of FinExpertiza Elena Trubnikova, the first quarter of the year was marked by an outflow of labor migrants due to the sharp ruble drop amid pressure of Ukraine-related sanctions. However, since the ruble recouped its losses in early April due to changes in Russia’s monetary policy and counter-sanctions, the number of arrivals surged. According to the analyst, while some of the migrants were in Russia before, many new people were registered over the past three months.
“This was affected primarily by the unexpectedly strong ruble, as a result of which the Russian labor market has become more attractive to foreigners, because their earnings in foreign currency increased,” she stated.
Besides the strengthening of the ruble, analysts said that growth in the construction industry had attracted many newcomers, as this sphere traditionally employs a large number of foreigners.
According to FinExpertiza data, around half of all migrant workers (1.54 million people) were from Uzbekistan, about 52,000 came from Tajikistan and a growing number of workers arrived from Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Ukraine and Moldova. Data shows that apart from the former Soviet republics, many workers came from the EU, the US, China, India and the UAE.
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