Uzbekistan again becomes main source of labor migrants for Russia

In 2022, 3.47 million labor migrants arrived in Russia from abroad. This is a third more than a year earlier, TASS reports with reference to Finexpertiza.

On average, one in four out of 13 million foreigners who crossed the Russian border indicated work as the purpose of their arrival. This is noticeably higher than in 2020, when the number of foreign workers fell to 1.1 million, but is inferior to the time before the pandemic (4.1 million people).

The vast majority of labor migrants are citizens of the CIS countries. The largest share falls on the citizens of Uzbekistan – 1.45 million, or almost 42% of the total.

The second place in terms of the number of people who came to work is occupied by people from Tajikistan with 986.7 thousand people (28.4%). Kyrgyzstan is next, from where 562.6 thousand people (16.2%) arrived during the year.

Also, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China, Vietnam and Moldova are in the TOP 10 labor migration. The number of workers from other countries in total amounted to 1.4% of the total mass.
 
As the head of Finexpertiza, Yelena Trubnikova, notes, in 2022 the situation with a shortage of personnel for blue-collar jobs – couriers, drivers, loaders, storekeepers, repairmen, builders – has worsened. Against the backdrop of rising salaries, the share of foreigners in these areas has increased.

“The Russian market has gained additional attractiveness for foreigners due to the strengthening of the ruble exchange rate, thanks to which earnings in terms of foreign currencies have increased significantly,” Trubnikova said.

The same was noted in the survey of the Bank of Russia, the results of which were published in early February. Every second enterprise reported a shortage of personnel, and even an increase in the influx of migrants could not fully compensate for the losses, especially in terms of qualified specialists.