The minister produced preliminary figures that suggested that an absolute reduction in the country's labor force would be 30,000 people in 2000, 370,000 in 2007 and 538,000 in 2008. He believes quotas on the number of immigrants that employers can take on need to be abolished to solve the problem.
Alexander Belov, the press secretary of the Movement against Illegal Immigration, argues that liberalization of immigration legislation will create many new problems. "Today, official data show Russia loses over $3.5 billion a year because of immigrant workers," he points out. If the ministry's plan is implemented, the losses will increase. Moreover, even if entry procedures are simplified, highly qualified professionals will not come to Russia: "Only those who live worse than we want to come to a country with our living standards," he says.
Viktor Alksnis, who sits on the State Duma committee for natural resources, sees the problem in a different light. "There are about 28 million people in the CIS and Baltic States whose ethnic groups have national state entities in Russia," he says. Russians, Tartars, Ossetians, Bashkirs, Mordovians, Chuvashes and other nationalities living outside Russia represent "a great reserve that can provide the country with a qualified and ethnically similar labor force."
