Immigration to Russia

Immigration to Russia involves foreign citizens seeking permanent residence in the territory of the Russian Federation. The standard immigration procedure consists of the following steps: obtaining a temporary residence permit; obtaining a permanent residence permit and obtaining Russian citizenship.^[1] Under current law, one can receive citizenship of Russia after five years of residence and after passing an exam in Russian language. Immigration to Russia is regulated by the Main Directorate for Migration Affairs.^[2] Immigration plays an important role in modern Russian demographic processes, accounting for the increase in the population from 2011.^[3]

Russia maintains one of the world's most liberal immigration policies; anyone who works in Russia for five years and develops fluency in the Russian language can become a citizen, provided he or she has not committed a crime. Almost anyone who is hired by a Russian firm can stay in the country and work indefinitely ^[4] This reflects a policy change, in response to declining birth rates, on the part of the government of Vladimir Putin from the more restrictive policy enacted after the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[5] The large non-Slavic immigrant populations arriving in response to Putin's liberal policy have sometimes encountered xenophobia. To counter this, pursuant to Russian hate-speech laws, the Russian state has shut down various anti-immigrant groups, such as the Movement Against Illegal Immigration.

Russian-language native-speakers, those married to Russian citizens, highly-qualified specialists, businessmen and refugees are eligible for a simplified immigration procedure. It allows gaining citizenship in 3 years (instead of 5 under the standard procedure) or sometimes skipping temporary or permanent residency.^[6]

Statistics[]

Recent trends[]

Countries with at least 1,500 persons immigrating each year.^[7][8]

Country	Gross immigration									Net immigration
	2000	2005	2010	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2000	2005	2010	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Ukraine	74,748	30,760	27,508	194,810	178,274	150,182	137,776	161,351	143,988	39,147	18,120	21,230	146,131	118,819	47,691	14,822	64,245	52,775
Tajikistan	11,043	4,717	18,188	47,638	52,676	63,467	67,929	89,553	93,333	9,885	4,283	17,494	11,362	27,288	34,639	31,028	48,374	39,424
Kazakhstan	124,903	51,945	27,862	65,750	69,356	71,680	72,141	86,311	64,494	106,990	39,508	20,533	34,767	37,130	32,736	26,516	39,166	8,440
Armenia	15,951	7,581	19,890	45,670	43,929	46,898	46,442	71,984	56,511	14,432	6,961	19,192	20,533	11,993	13,999	14,358	35,109	−1,836
Uzbekistan	40,810	30,436	24,100	74,242	60,977	64,073	55,378	60,796	50,188	37,724	29,841	23,266	−20,668	19,672	22,167	6,807	19,129	4,927
Kyrgyzstan	15,536	15,592	20,901	26,045	28,202	41,165	44,408	53,810	45,676	13,679	15,119	20,260	9,935	11,043	19,355	8,978	15,106	1,402
Azerbaijan	14,906	4,600	14,500	24,326	24,109	25,602	26,690	34,619	32,135	11,719	3,326	13,389	10,660	10,439	8,599	8,737	17,005	10,894
Moldova	11,652	6,569	11,814	34,026	32,418	31,369	30,676	26,513	22,129	9,415	5,783	11,197	17,380	14,364	9,605	7,688	5,385	3,490
Belarus	10,274	6,797	4,894	17,741	14,590	21,282	19,045	18,428	14,536	−3,002	763	1,995	4,909	2,127	11,770	7,191	6,283	−1,403
Turkmenistan	6,738	4,104	2,283	6,539	7,242	8,734	10,509	14,632	12,930	6,062	3,979	2,178	2,320	2,418	2,873	2,951	6,198	778
China	1,121	432	1,380	9,043	8,027	8,237	7,067	15,306	7,270	463	−24	1,132	−778	−810	637	−477	6,679	−3,764
Vietnam	182	114	921	4,012	3,735	3,912	3,981	6,742	6,206	149	69	889	1,004	394	1,194	684	3,461	308
Georgia *Abkhazia (disp. status) *South Ossetia (disp. status)	20,213 – –	5,497 – –	5,245 814 33	7,038 2,267 342	6,511 2,261 216	6,809 2,357 270	6,345 1,975 260	6,925 1,429 110	5,764 1,217 131	18,411 - -	4,806 - -	4,786 732 23	3,309 1,272 -282	2,294 1,240 83	2,586 1,975 180	2,031 1,975 96	2,840 147 -4	1,274 30 14
India	203	54	110	2,894	4,768	5,622	5,032	9,588	4,506	−	41	93	1,282	1,421	1,437	−185	4,326	−4,779
Syria	358	68	150	1,221	1,107	1,370	1,270	2,388	2,079	304	14	128	190	352	704	328	1,372	157
Afghanistan	288	60	236	831	846	1,183	1,206	1,820	1,635	263	49	222	219	270	637	570	910	234
Turkey	164	86	562	2,091	1,626	1,600	1,765	2,283	1,630	60	1	415	−109	312	381	672	804	−165
Total	359,330	177,230	191,656	598,617	575,158	589,033	565,685	701,234	594,146	213,610	107,432	158,078	245,384	261,948	211,878	124,854	285,103	106,510

Foreign population[]

As of June 2019, there are 10.13 million foreigners residing in the Russian Federation (up from 9.63 million in 2018 and 9.96 million in 2017), with the vast majority (85%) being citizens of CIS countries. Central Asians make up the most numerous group, followed by Ukrainian citizens. Temporary migration from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan increased after a marked decline in 2015-2016. Two countries—Moldova and Ukraine—have steadily demonstrated a decrease in the number of migrants.^[9]

Foreign residents from the CIS in Russia:^[9]

Country of origin	Population (2019)	2018–2019 change
Uzbekistan	2,188,835	+171,005
Ukraine	1,763,930	-177,519
Tajikistan	1,303,302	+179,348
Kyrgyzstan	716,118	+77,383
Belarus	655,846	+38,213
Azerbaijan	650,495	+42,759
Kazakhstan	496,096	+36,839
Armenia	491,767	-13,068
Moldova	326,178	-49,390

Foreign residents from selected EU countries and the US:

Country of origin	Population (2019)	2018–2019 change
Germany	92,997	-3,036
Finland	53,880	-5,232
United States	37,160	-1,574
France	30,736	+3,255
Italy	22,155	-315
United Kingdom	16,752	-3,394
Spain	12,938	-148

See also[]

• Illegal immigration to Russia

References[]

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