Moscow’s Little Kyrgyzstan
00:00 – 00:35
INTRO
Produced by Franco Galdini
Directed by Chingiz Narinov
Script Franco Galdini
Narration Susannah Tresilian
Soundtrack Salt Peanuts
00:36 - 01:21
NARRATOR
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation has become one of the most important destinations for immigration in the world, second only to the United States and equal to Germany.
Unlike Europe, however, the majority of people going to Russia aren’t political refugees and asylum seekers, but economic migrants looking for employment opportunities.
Most of the migrants are from the former Soviet space, with Central Asia at the forefront of this massive human flow. Tens of thousands leave the republics of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan every year to find seasonal employment in Russia’s main cities.
01:21 - 01:26
TITLE / MOSCOW’S LITTLE KYRGYZSTAN
01:28 - 01:48
NARRATOR
Life far from home isn’t easy. Migrant workers in Russia face a corrupt state bureaucracy that makes the task of regularising their presence in the country daunting. Police harassment is not uncommon and due to the prolonged economic slump, anti-immigrant sentiment is widespread.
01:54 - 02:27
BERMET BORUBAEVA, PR MANAGER
I came here to study, but I didn’t think I’d stay more than six months, because I am somehow very...well, I thought I’d just leave soon afterwards, that I won’t be able to live here. In any case, it was very difficult to adapt and study. During the first year, my parents supported me, my brother lived here, but after he was deported and forbidden to enter Russia for 5 years, I had to find a job.
02:36 - 03:03
MARAT ISAEV, COURIER
The first job I found was that of courier. At the time, I didn’t know Moscow, so it was difficult, but after a while to be honest I got to know the city better. I have been working as a courier for the past 3 years. I deliver documents from 10 am to 6 pm.
03:07 - 03:17
NARRATOR
Valery Solovei is a Professor at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He takes a bleak view of migration to Russia.
03:18 – 03:45
VALERY SOLOVEI, PROFESSOR, MGIMO
If we speak of Russia, the number of immigrants in the country is at least 8 million, but a more realistic estimate is 10-12 million, and possibly even more. In this regard, Russia is the second country in the world for number of immigrants after the United States, even though Russia’s population is 2.5 times less than the US population, so of course migration is quite a serious problem for us.
03:48 - 04:04
SHUKURINSA KAMALOVA, INTERPRETER
[People come] because here you can earn a living, you can save money and buy something for yourself and for your family. We don’t have such salaries in our home country. This is why people are still drawn here.
04:10 – 04:36
MARAT ISAEV, COURIER
At first I came here alone, then my brother came, and we began to make some money, thank God. We built a house [in Kyrgyzstan], bought a car, and we both got married. We have plans, and in order to fulfil them we are working in Moscow.
04:38 - 05:10
BAZILA NASYPOVA, MEDICAL DOCTOR
As far as I know, the people of Kyrgyzstan mainly work as nurses, nannies, and housekeepers. They work without papers. I haven’t met anyone who was officially registered or working with a contract of employment. Even if they work with a contract, their official salary is maybe 20,000 roubles (≈300 USD). Russian citizens and Muscovites won’t work for such money.
05:11 – 5:44
NURSULTAN TATENOV, ESTATE AGENT
You see, in the United States and in other countries they have their own Chinatowns, or small Italian towns and quarters. In Moscow, there is no such territorial division. Instead, there is some kind of ‘shadow parallel city’ here. [Immigrants from Kyrgyzstan] have their own cafes and restaurants; they organise their concerts for entertainment; they have their own medical centres, schools, the same estate agencies. Everywhere, it’s the same group of your own co-nationals from Kyrgyzstan.
05:45 – 06:20
ADIS SYDYKBEKOV, HAIRDRESSING SALON OWNER
We mostly find customers through acquaintances. Every week we distribute leaflets to those who come to the mosque for Friday prayer, and then each time one, two more people come to our salon as they’ve heard about us from someone else. They mainly come to us through our acquaintances. We opened 8 months ago and, thank God, we have work and our own customers. Our migrant workers come to us, they don’t go somewhere else. They come to us and this is their way of supporting us.
06:21 – 07:04
BAZILA NASYPOVA, MEDICAL DOCTOR
First of all, Kyrgyzstanis won’t be accepted for free [in medical centres], they must pay. Second, Muscovites themselves cannot access good medical services. And then there’s also the Kyrgyz mindset to carry out medical checkups with one’s own doctors [from Kyrgyzstan], and finally there is the language barrier. Many migrants who come here don’t know Russian, so I think that’s another reason. And you know, I also realized that our fellow Kyrgyz think that if they are examined or treated by Kyrgyz doctors, then they’ll receive better medical care than in a clinic with Russian doctors.
07:05 – 07:11
Do you like it here in Russia?
She doesn't want to go back to Kyrgyzstan.
07:12 – 07:37
NURGUL KAIMOVA, OWNER, ‘PARITET’ ESTATE AGENCY
No-one intends to leave [Russia]. Very many people stay here, give birth, their children go to kindergarten or to school. That is, people are settling down here. A case in point right now, I hear from almost everyone, if in the past people would leave their children [in Kyrgyzstan] and come here alone for 1 or 2 years to work, now they come with their families and settle down here.
07:38 – 08:01
When can you show your apartment?
The customers are from Kyrgyzstan.
Ok, I understand, thank you.
08:02 – 08:21
NARRATOR
With few opportunities at home, Central Asians continue to emigrate to Russia in search of a better future despite the many difficulties they encounter. With rents in Moscow too high for them to afford, many have to pool resources with their compatriots and end up living in overcrowded conditions.
08:22 – 09:11
SHUKURINSA KAMALOVA, INTERPRETER
Here [in Moscow] we have to live in an apartment with 10 or 15 other people. There was even a two-bedroom apartment in which about 30 people lived. That was awful, of course. Since rents are expensive, a family cannot afford to pay it alone, even an entire salary isn’t enough for them to rent their own apartment. That’s why you have to live together. Relatives and fellow countrymen rent together, pay the rent together, so that it’d be cheaper.
09:12 – 09:28
NURGUL KAIMOVA, OWNER, ‘PARITET’ ESTATE AGENCY
For example, a contract to rent an apartment is formalised with 5 people, but let’s say 10 people live in the apartment. So, the 5 of them who are registered can stay, but the others who aren’t can face deportation.
09:29 – 9:41
NARRATOR
This problem is widespread among migrant workers. When dozens of people live at the same address, only some get to register, with at times dire consequences for those who don’t.
09:44 – 10:02
NARRATOR
Sonkol has lived in Moscow since 2012. He earns a fee by helping his fellow Kyrgyzstanis navigate Russian bureaucracy to regularise their legal status in the country. His wife Ainur gives private lessons in Komuz, a traditional Kyrgyz string instrument.
10:03 – 11:32
SONKOL KAZYBEKOV, ENTREPRENEUR
Many people have their registration extended by their employers, that is, at the legal address [of the business where they work]. Then, they should re-register at their place of residence, i.e. at the apartment where they live. But many apartment owners won’t [bother to] re-register them. So, at the end of the day, the workers end up being registered only at the legal address. When inspectors come to the house or apartment where they live and start checking their documents, the legal address where they are registered doesn’t correspond to their place of residence.
So they are immediately taken to the police station and the next day they are brought to court. That is, the decisions and court orders are ready immediately; the [judges] sign them and deport the migrant workers, meaning they expel them [from Russia]. But in essence, they haven’t broken any law. They work legally, they pay taxes. It’s all legal, but there are some laws that...I don’t know...this is how 90% of Kyrgyz live here, I may say even 95% of the Kyrgyz who are now here. This is a very big problem, people need to know about it.
11:33 – 11:46
NARRATOR
With the Russian economy struggling under the strain of global economic crisis, low oil prices, and Western sanctions due to the war in Ukraine, it is not uncommon for migrant workers to be singled out for blame.
11:47 – 11:57
Russians, forward! Russians, forward!
No to the Tajiks! No to the Kyrgyz!
Yes to the Russians! Yes to the Russians!
11:58 – 12:28
NARRATOR
In August 2015, Kyrgyzstan joined Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia as the fifth member of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union. The country’s elites marketed the move as an important step towards development, which will also facilitate the free flow of labour between the Union’s members.
While entry into the EEU has somewhat facilitated the life of Kyrgyzstani migrant workers, the backlash in Russia has already started.
12:29 – 12:47
VALERY SOLOVEI, PROFESSOR, MGIMO
You know, I’m not convinced that freedom of movement for goods and services must be accompanied by freedom of movement for people. If we realize that this is a problem, that it creates serious tensions, people’s freedom of movement can be restricted in a very simple way, by introducing a visa regime.
12:48 – 12:59
NARRATOR
At a round table last May in Moscow, participants argued strongly in favour of introducing a visa regime with Central Asian countries to stem the tide of migration to Russia.
13:00 – 14:21
SVEVOLOD RADCHENKO, COORDINATOR, COALITION ‘FOR A VISA REGIME’
I believe that the visa regime is a filter that allows us to get rid of surplus migration, of the so-called unwanted or unjustified migration. All those immigrants coming in unbelievably high numbers are simply unnecessary. What we need here, instead, are very specific categories of migrants, especially from Slavic countries close to us for ethno-cultural codes, such as Ukraine and Belarus. And we need highly skilled immigrants.
So, if we check the database of all migrants before they come here, we will know that this person during his life in his country broke the law once or more; that is, he has a criminal record. Do we need criminals? I think we can safely assume that we can cross him off the list. So, this person is accordingly blacklisted.
We will also know that this person has tuberculosis, AIDS and other such diseases. Do we need this person? We don’t. Third, we will know that this person has no education. He has no secondary education, let alone higher or professional education. Again, let’s add him to the stop list. Accordingly, we make it illegal for very many [migrants to come here] at the entrance.
14:25 – 15:26
VALERY SOLOVEI, PROFESSOR, MGIMO
Who benefits from migration in Russia, basically? Corrupt officials – for whom it is a big business – and the quasi-criminal, illegal business sectors, as migrant workers don’t pay taxes so they, in turn, don’t pay for the workers’ insurance and so on and so forth.
I can cite the following statistics. Last year, in 2015 in Moscow, 250,000 workers bought a work licence, i.e. 250,000 worked got legalised. While I understand that a licence in Moscow costs 4,200 roubles (≈65 USD) per month, which is frankly quite expensive, still, fairly accurate and reliable estimates, there are no fewer than 4 million migrant workers in Moscow, between 4 and 5 million in Moscow city, and perhaps even more if you consider its province.
You see, this is a huge gap. The thing is that their illegal status is an enormous problem for the migrants themselves, because these people find themselves outside the framework of the law. They are outside the law and so they have no rights here.
15:27 – 17:13
BERMET BORUBAEVA, PR MANAGER
My brother obtained a work permit for about 30,000 roubles (≈450 USD). It is the company [where one works] that can provide a work permit, but there’s corruption at all levels. In order to make all necessary documents as fast as possible, the workers apply – and probably their company also pays someone. But even when you’ve paid 30,000 roubles, my brother for example went [to the appointed government body] and stood in line for days on end. He just couldn’t pick up his permit which was already ready. The system is built in such an awkward way that a normal bureaucratic process that should take no longer than a day on the whole, instead takes months.
When I stood in the queue, there was a girl who wanted to skip the queue of girls lining up like me, so they kicked her out. But she said that she had paid them to be able to jump the queue, so they started having an argument. In reality, what happened was that she paid someone a bribe to skip the queue and take her licence to work. Instead, they just took her money [without respecting their side of the deal,] and she started speaking about all this there. So they told her: ‘Today for sure you won’t get your documents, go away.’ But she replies: ‘I need my permit today, it’s urgent, please.’ So in the end they told her that either she left, or all we girls wouldn’t get our permits either. Meaning, they’d stop giving out work permits for women and let only the men in.
17:14 – 17:46
AIBEK RAIMBERDI UULU, WAREHOUSE WORKER, MIXED-MARTIAL ARTIST
There are cases when they humiliate us, calling us ‘niggers’ and ‘gook-eyes.’ But I don’t pay attention to these words. Many of course get offended, as it hurts your dignity. Yes, there were such cases, but I never fought with anyone.
17:47 – 18:54
DMITRY POLETAEV, DIRECTOR, MIGRATION RESEARCH CENTRE
Of course, there is a very serious problem of xenophobia in Russia. In my opinion, this is a very serious problem for Russia itself, as when there is division within society, when there is some form of segregation, this prevents society from being whole. Therefore, despite the existence of some nationalist politicians and rank and file radicals who say that ‘Russia is for the Russians,’ well, Russia cannot be only for the Russians, because we’ve always had a multinational country. Russia was created by some kind of expansion into territories where not only Russians were living, but where the non-Russian indigenous population was actually always the majority.
However, what’s been happening in Russia in the past 2 years has been encouraging, as xenophobia appears to be on the decrease. I link this fact to the events in Ukraine, since there has been a flow of refugees from there, and they are also immigrants. And on television and the media, there have been far fewer xenophobic stories.
18:55 – 19:34
JOLDUBAI MAMASHARIPOV, OWNER, ‘AK BARS’ GYM
I think that almost 30% of young Kyrgyz who are in Russia will remain in Russia. Those who get used to living here, stay here. All in all, many of those who came here from Kyrgyzstan, perhaps already 50% of them have obtained Russian citizenship. Will they be able to live in Kyrgyzstan in the future or not, many start having such doubts. Many are afraid that in Kyrgyzstan they won’t be able to get a good pension, as they are now Russian citizens and therefore they have to get their pension here. So, because of this, they start thinking about remaining here.
19:35 – 20:27
DMITRY POLETAEV, DIRECTOR, MIGRATION RESEARCH CENTRE
There is a need to create a network of centres in Kyrgyzstan, which would explain how to adapt quickly to life in Russia, how to get a licence to work, and give practical tips [to the migrants.] In my opinion this is a big omission on the side of Russia, because after all Russia is even more interested in [having] the migrant workers, though Kyrgyzstan is also undoubtedly interested [in sending them.] But let’s be realistic, Kyrgyzstan doesn’t have the money to open a large number of such centres. So Russia could open these centres, as anyway it needs this labour migration, which is important for its economy.
For example, I can say that, if we take the official figures, over the past year, for 2015, migrant workers contributed about 57 billion roubles (≈870 million USD) to the Russian economy.
20:28 – 21:33
NARRATOR
Remittances from migrant workers significantly contribute to their country’s economy, too. The World Bank estimates that, in 2014, money sent back home by migrants represented 36% of Tajikistan’s GDP, and 30% of Kyrgyzstan’s.
Beyond the economic benefits to both Russia and the Central Asian republics, however, migrant workers often operate in a legal grey zone with little to no guaranteed rights and protections under the law. At times, this has exposed them to serious hazards, including death.
Authorities in Kyrgyzstan claim that, in the first seven months of 2016 alone, 430 migrant workers died in work-related accidents in Russia. The latest such episode caused an outpouring of grief in the country, as 14 young women died in a massive fire that engulfed the Moscow printing house where they worked. Their employer is currently under investigation for violating fire safety rules.
21:52 – 22:38
BERMET BORUBAEVA, PR MANAGER
In principle, this doesn’t happen only in Russia but globally, it is a neoliberal economic trend, whereby a precarious labour force is exploited and all conditions are created [to have] illegal workers, because they come here in groups and remain here to work without any protection.
They haven’t got labour contracts, so they can be paid very little, or late, or not at all. They haven’t got those labour rights which are guaranteed by law, meaning that on construction sites workers can be exploited for as little as a bowl of soup.
22:47 – 23:09
JOLDUBAI MAMASHARIPOV, OWNER, ‘AK BARS’ GYM
Every day I think about returning home. It’d be good to go back and be useful to your people. If there were jobs in Kyrgyzstan, we could live and work in our homeland. Such thoughts never leave us, we have such hopes. I think every Kyrgyz wants to live in his homeland.
23:10 – 23:27
TITLE / MOSCOW’S LITTLE KYRGYZSTAN
23:28 – 24:57 / END
CREDITS
Produced by Franco Galdini
Camera Talgat Berikov Chingiz Narynov
Sound Aibek Asylbekov
Editing Chingiz Narynov Natalya Polyakova
Special thanks
Bermet Borubaeva
Marat Isaev
Bazila Nasypova
Shukurinsa Kamalova
Nursultan Tatenov
Nurgul Kaimova
Adis Sydykbekov
Sonkol Kazybekov
Aibek Raimberdi Uulu
Joldubai Mamasharipov
Susannah Tresilian
Meerim Asanbaeva
Daniele Rumolo
Laura Macini
Giulio Galdini
Letizia Galdini
Bakyt Kydykbayev and Salt Peanuts
Abek Narynov
Ainash Narynova
Jyldyz Ozerova
Dmitry Poletaev
Migration research centre, Moscow
Anara Beisheeva
Migration and Law centre, Moscow
Renat Karimov
Trade Union of Migrant Workers
Bektour Iskender
Kloop Media Foundation for permission to use copyright material
Pegasus Airlines