The recent history of migration to Russia: main sources and plots. On the materials of the board meetings of the Federal Migration Service 2004-2016.

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-3-779-793

For citation

Avdashkin, Andrey A. (2024), The recent history of migration to Russia: main sources and plots. On the materials of the board meetings of the Federal Migration Service 2004-2016, Herald of an Archivist, № 3, pp. 779-793, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-3-779-793

Avdashkin, Andrey A., South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia

The recent history of migration to Russia: main sources and plots. On the materials of the board meetings of the Federal Migration Service 2004-2016.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of migration processes in the modern history of Russia. The historiography on this subject is still in a state of formation, the published works are often interdisciplinary and are practically devoid of reliance on archival documents. One of the main factors that significantly hinders the intensification of historical research in this area is the lack of a source base, primarily specialized archival funds and collections. In order to further increase scientific knowledge on the raised problem, it is important for the historical community to understand what documents on this topic can be found in archives, what their potential is, and what the list of subjects that can be studied on the basis of these documents looks like. For example, the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) currently has a collection of the Federal Migration Service (FMS), which contains documents from the period of its functioning within the Ministry of Internal Affairs (2004-2016). The historian can get a systemic picture of migration in this period from the valuable materials of the FMS boards for 2008-2015. These meetings summarized the annual results of the FMS work, outlined the main trends of state policy in the field of migration and demography, announced the results of the admission of foreigners to citizenship of the Russian Federation, characterized the mobility of foreign labor force, etc. The introduction of these documents into scientific circulation will help to better understand the migration situation in the country over the past two decades and reconstruct the dynamics of labor migration from Central Asia and other regions. Taking into account the limited volume of the manuscript, the main emphasis is made by the author on the role of migration in replacing the natural population loss, the number of persons admitted to the citizenship of the Russian Federation, the main directions of foreign labor migration during the global financial crisis (2008-2009) up to the transformation of the Federal Migration Service into the Migration Department. During this period, the “Central Asian” vector of labor migration finally took shape, which greatly contributed to the development of discussions on the integration of foreign citizens. This role was partly assigned to the FMS apparatus, for which purpose interaction with national-cultural and public organizations was strengthened, and integration centers were created where foreign citizens could learn the Russian language and receive advice on legal issues.

Keywords

Migration, migration service, historical sources, integration, labor migrants.

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About the authors

Avdashkin Andrey A., PhD history, Senior Researcher, South Ural State University, Institute of Media and Socio-Humanitarian Sciences, Laboratory of Migration Studies, Chelyabinsk, Russia, 8-951-123-37-93, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The article was prepared with the financial support of the grant of the Russian National Foundation and the Government of the Chelyabinsk region (project № 23-28-10211) “Analysis of mechanisms of formation of migrant infrastructure in a Russian city (on the example of the Chelyabinsk region)”, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-10211/

The article was received in the editorial office on 28.02.2024, recommended for publication on 20.06.2024.