From the website of the all-Russian movement “MOVEMENT OF TAJIK LABOR MIGRANTS”: Migrants Will Improve the Birth Rate
Yaroslavl has become more attractive to migrants from CIS countries (the Commonwealth of Independent States, a post-Soviet regional association). The reason is new migration legislation that has significantly simplified the procedures for obtaining citizenship and work permits. This so-called “simplified procedure” has been in effect for exactly one year. Today, migration service officials summed up the first results of work under the new laws. Migrants have not come flooding in, but their number has grown substantially—by almost 17 percent. Those most eager to come to Yaroslavl for work are Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Armenians, and Tajiks. The simplified procedure for obtaining citizenship allows many of them to remain in Russia permanently. This procedure has been introduced in Russia for only two years. And interestingly, one of the main goals of this measure is to increase the birth rate through foreign citizens. “‘Simplified’ means that after receiving a temporary residence permit, and skipping the stage of obtaining a residence permit, one can immediately submit documents to acquire citizenship. Our birth rate, unfortunately, is not very good. I think attracting migrants both for work and for permanent residence will improve the demographic situation in the Yaroslavl region and in Russia as a whole,” said Tatyana Agapova, head of the Federal Migration Service office for the Yaroslavl region. http://www.tajmigrant.com/15_01_08_statiya.html and from the same site, an appeal from the Congress of the Peoples of Tajikistan in the Russian Federation (!!!) to Putin: Dear Mr. President, Today, the overwhelming majority of Tajik migrants wish to obtain Russian citizenship. The Congress earnestly asks you to consider increasing the quota for “temporary residence permits” and simplifying the mechanism for obtaining citizenship of the Russian Federation on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement “On Dual Citizenship.” http://www.tajmigrant.com/obrashenie_delegatov_k_putinu.html via a link from that little Putin fangirl Nadka Orlova (little in the sense of height)