Russia’s government approved plans to reduce the country’s temporary migrant worker quota by nearly half in 2025, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday, citing a government document it obtained.
According to the document, Russian authorities set next year’s quota at 5,500 migrants, roughly half of this year’s quota of 10,595. The quota determines the number of foreign citizens who can temporarily reside and work in Russia, and the permits are issued for a period of up to three years without the possibility of an extension.
Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region, which usually receive the largest quotas, will be able to accept 1,000 and 350 temporary migrant workers in 2025, respectively. That is down from 1,500 and 750 this year.
St. Petersburg will also see a reduction from 300 to 200 permits for migrant temporary workers. The republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, which both had 500 permits two years ago, will get only 100 this year.
While authorities in Russia have taken a tougher line on immigration — mostly from Central Asian countries — since the deadly March attack on a Moscow concert hall, as TASS notes, the country’s temporary migrant worker quota has gradually decreased over the past five years. In 2023, the quota stood at 13,500, while the year before it was 19,000.
According to TASS, authorities usually fail to meet the temporary quotas, which are separate from Russia’s overall intake of migrant workers. So far this year, only 20.4% of the temporary migrant worker quota has been met, the news agency reported.
Russia’s Interior Ministry previously reported that the number of migrants in the country stood at 6.1 million as of September 2023, down from 8.5 million the year before.