Russia attracts more foreign migrants

Russia has reached the third place in the world in terms of migration volume, announced RF Nationalities Minister Vladimir Zorin at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Russia occupies the third place in the world in terms of external and internal migration volumes, after the United States and Germany," said Mr. Zorin.

"From 1989 until 2002, 11 million people have migrated to Russia, and only 5 million have left the country. Therefore, the increase of the Russian population through migration was 6 million people," Mr. Zorin underlined.

"At present, we do not know precisely how many Russian citizens and how many migrants reside on the territory of the Russian Federation. In the beginning of 2004, we will know these numbers because the results of the census will be ready by that time," the minister added.

According to Mr. Zorin, the Russian government takes appropriate measures to regulate the migration policy. "We did not have migration cards before, but at present we do, and we have already issued more than 8.5 million of those. We have also introduced quotas on the number of foreign workers allowed to work in Russia," pointed out the nationalities minister.

"Our task is to make domestic migration policy correspond to international standards," concluded Mr. Zorin.