The recent shocking hostage crisis in Russia’s southern city Beslan stirred the activity of illegal nationalist movements. Soon after the events, a number of attacks by racist groups went off in various Russian cities against people of Caucasian and Asian nationalities. On September 18, a group of about fifty teenagers severely beat three foreigners from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan inside the Moscow subway. A week after the Beslan tragedy, one Armenian was killed and two severely beaten by members of an illegal organization in Yekaterinburg oblast.

According to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, about 50,000 members are involved in various racist movements, and the number is growing every year. The recent terrorist acts accumulated xenophobic feelings not only among radical movements comprised mostly of teenagers, but also impacted ordinary citizens. Nationalist intolerance increased among Russians in recent years as Chechnya’s protracted crisis seems to have reached a stalemate. The inability of the Russian government to alleviate the armed conflict poses a challenge for anyone in the civilian population to become a next victim of suicide bombers or hostage takers. Intolerance is expressed in boycotting markets with migrant merchants and restraining from contact with foreigners in public places.

Today Russian official statistics reckons that about five million migrants from 91 different states are working in Russia without legal status. 60% of them are CIS natives, mostly from the South Caucasus and Central Asian states, and some from Belarus and Ukraine. Migrants annually send about US$13-15 billion in remittances to their countries of origin, the Russian Ministry of Interior estimates.

Seasonal workers have become a major source of cheap labor in western Russia. The Russian government knows that labor migrants entail mutual economic benefits and that there are regions in the country where additional manpower is urgently needed. Migrant inflows also represent a positive trend in the country’s declining demographic index. Experts from the Russian Academy of Science say that the country lacks a clear concept for immigration in conditions when the native population is decreasing by 800,000 people every year.

Legislature to control migration processes includes only basic regulations. More flexible interstate agreements are necessary for states where migrants’ annual remittances from Russia take up significant shares of national economies. Among them, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and to a lesser extent Armenia lack elaborated bilateral standards of legal registration. Visa regimes with Uzbekistan and Georgia represent a significant barrier for human migration. The upcoming passport reform in Tajikistan will complicate procedural requirements for Tajik migrants. Beginning next year, Tajik passports will be issued for five years instead of ten and require an additional permission to leave the country. The situation with legal regulation of migrants from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is more advanced due to proliferation of ties with Russia in economic, political and military spheres.

There is a noticeable increase of internal security control after the Beslan events, as law enforcement agencies are put on high alert in persecuting possible suspected Chechen fighters. Often ordinary migrants are unaware of their own rights while dealing with security structures. For many, the rights are limited due to an inability to receive official registration. Lack of a legal status and elaborated immigration regulations force migrants to bribe militiamen and border guards.

Violence against foreigners in Russia increased among local nationalist movements after a series of terrorist incidents. Often labor migrants with non-European or “Chechen-like” appearances first fall victims to such movements. However, the recent brutal siege in Beslan brought public frustration to a different level, leading ordinary people to seek personal safety by avoiding contact with foreigners.