Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The main topic if research are the informal unions, the alternative construction
of legal, economic, intagrational systems
because the migrants cannot rely neither on the existing systems as they cannot trust them,
nor on the NGO as they do not know anything about them, neither on diasporas
as they suspect them in the intention to enslave them.
So they create these unions, which are not always good but nevertheless quite effective
as I will show in my presentation.
The first survey was made in 2007 and repeated in 2009 and 2011.
Surveys are made in late January or early February, therefore they refer to the previous year.
The period of survey is determined by the fact that it is only then when the migrants are at home,
otherwise we cannot catch them.
As you see in 2007 there were much more independent migrants, that were not the members of the unions.
We asked the question why it is so, but the answers were different and we cannot put them together here.
The most common explanation was that the easing of the legal regulation in 2006-2007
that gave the migrants the sense of euphoria that they can survive in Russia by themselves.
At the same time in 2007 there were less members of the voluntary networks
and much more functionaries of the network.
Functionaries are the people that do not get the main profit from the existence of the network,
are not its holders but receive the stable salary from the holders of the network
for the organization of the process of interaction with its members.
In 2009, and I think it is explained by the economic crisis because it was among the first answers,
more migrants got united into networks and you can see that exactly in this period
there was a drastic increase in the number of people that were forced to become members of informal networks.
Forced members of the informal networks are almost slaves.
As a rule they are deprived of their passport and other documents, they do not get money until the go home.
As for voluntary members of networks, they do not always get money immediately,
but the network functionaries organize the money transfers with some set amount of money,
usually about 100$ to the home country via Unistream or Contact systems.
This money stably goes so people prefer to work in this network.
The number of voluntary members, as you see, keeps growing.
It shows that more people understand the convenience of these unions
and in 2011 more than a half of the migrants belonged to the voluntary informal networks,
and about 13% are members of the forced networks.
The number of functionaries is not high.
This network is usually called brigade.
Good foremen usually has 30-50 people, on average 36.
The bad networks, where people are basically enslaved, about 80 people.
The good network has two functionaries, the bad network that needs a stricter control has 8-10.
How do people get into this network?
The stable number of people is brought by the functionary.
He is both a recruiter and the transporter.
Basically he organizes the illegal migration.
The labor migration from Uzbekistan without the personal permission of Prime Minister is always illegal.
Moreover, what is done by the Agency for the external labor migration of Uzbekistan
is also the illegal migration because it is called educational although in fact people work.
It still comes under the 135 article of the Criminal Code of Russia.
Many migrants are brought by their relatives or friends.
In 2007 it was rather the slavery recruitment, while in 2011 it was rather help,
the desire to put your relative in a good organization.
Some people become the members of the networks because they lost their documents or lost their legal status,
could not leave the country on time, could not get the work permission so they can only rely on somebody
who would hide them.
They found this in the network.
Some could not find job.
You see the situation is not stable, most likely there is some connection to the economic crisis,
or maybe some other causes - we just did not have enough resources to examine it.
There are some cases of being sold by the other foremen,
that was very wide-spread in the mid-2000s when the foremen were giving the passport
to another person receiving money instead, so basically people were sold.
We can call it people-trade.
We also had many answers like it is all the same, I put up with it.
Another option is I am used to this foreman, but it gives more value to the own condition.
Many answers say that it is easier to find the work, housing, etc. like this.
Pay attention to this because in 2011 the number of options decreased and narrowed only to housing and work.
I think it is connected to the restriction of the immigration laws, the cutting of immigration quotas,
so people did not really have many options.
Membership in the informal networksů
As you see most of women are free, but there are very few of them,
men are mostly in the age groups 31-45 and 20-30 are mostly involved in networks.
Nationality, as we found out, influences the involvement in the networks but not as strong as the region.
It turned out the Uzbeks from Namangan and Khujand have the higher chances
to get into the same network than the Uzbeks from Namangan and Qashqadarya
- they do not come in the same network.
Often it happens because the same functionary goes to the same region,
and these migrants are mostly brought by the functionaries.
There are also some networks of relatives that cover for example the Namangan region and Osh region in Kyrgyzstan.
These are Uzbek networks that allow to come to work together.
Other nationalities as you see are much less involved in networks.
Russians, for instance, very rarely untie some small networks that composed only from Russians
of the same region.
Citizenship. This data is no representative, because it refers only to those who contacted my hotline.
This data is about problems.
But we can see here who has problems.
Azeries rarely have problems and they are mostly free.
Armenians are only free, maybe because Armenian networks are successful.
Very few Byelorussians, and their networks are in between them.
All Georgians are free.
Kazakhs are either voluntary members or the holders of networks,
and the networks owned by Kazakh are composed of Kirgiz and Uzbek.
Interestingly, the Russian non-Russians are forced into networks equally frequently
as the citizens of Uzbekistan.
These non-Russian are mostly from the North Caucasus and they unite in networks
on the national and regional principle and have problems with employers.
This diagram shows that the occupation spectrum does not differ for the independent Uzbek migrants
and those involved in the networks.
Profession does not influence the involvement in the network.
What are benefits and disadvantages of the networks?
Independent migrants are more likely to be officially registered in migration services.
But those who in the voluntarily networks are more likely to have a work permit.
In the good brigades it is the foreman who takes the financial responsibility for the documents.
It does not work for all the brigades and not for all the members of the brigade,
only for the most-qualified workers who will stay in the place for long.
Forced members of the networks are also usually legally employed.
It is connected to the fact that they are sold to the enterprise.
The foreman concludes a contract for them and takes part of their salary.
I am not sure if it is representative.
The minimum gurateed wage is received by almost all network members,
while the independent migrants have much less chances for it.
Almost all network members, regardless of the voluntary or forced membership,
are provided with housing and food.
Independent migrants send money home more often, but others also send quite often as well.
Forced members send more often than voluntarily, but it is because the foreman sends money for them.
The members of network, including the forced ones,
feel more protection from the governmental organs than the independent migrants.
Voluntary network members feel more protected from the abuse of the employer
than either independent migrants of forced network members.
Naturally the independent migrants can dispose of their time
and money and choose the work and housing by themselves.