Russia Wants Migrants From New Countries to Help Plug Labour Shortage

Russia wants to widen its source of migrant workers beyond ex-Soviet republics to Asian nations including Myanmar, the Interfax news agency cited the economy minister as saying on Tuesday.

With unemployment at a record low 2.3%, President Vladimir Putin has flagged labour shortages as a problem and on Friday steelmaker Severstal criticised a regional move to ban migrant workers in construction.

Citizens from the former Soviet Union have traditionally dominated Russia’s migrant workforce.

“We should probably not only fixate on the countries from which we are accustomed to attracting migrants,” Interfax quoted Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov as saying in the lower house of parliament.

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Russia is already in discussions with Myanmar, Reshetnikov said, which has about 6 million of its 55 million population working abroad.

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Heavy recruitment by the armed forces and defence industries has drawn workers away from civilian enterprises {snip}

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