After the fall of the USSR, many Central Asian migrants from newly independent states moved to Russia, a country similar and familiar to their own. However, anti-migrant rhetoric has now taken root in Russia as well.
With government encouragement, xenophobia sometimes cascades into violence, leaving migrants in difficult situations.
Crocus City Hall Attack: One of the Deadliest Terrorist Attacks in Decades
On 22 March 2024, at Crocus Hall, a large concert hall in western Moscow, rock group Piknik’s concert, which sold out the 6,200-capacity venue, was set to begin but did not commence.
Attackers with rifles, wearing camouflage, shot at people indiscriminately and threw bombs into the crowd. The venue soon caught fire; the roof later collapsed. At least 145 died and 550 were injured in what the Kremlin labeled “an act of terrorism.”
On a Telegram account of the Islamic State terrorist organization, the Afghanistan-based violent group ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility.
This group were also responsible for a 2022 terrorist attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. This spurred a crackdown on all migrants, which has continued ever since, only worsening.
Backlash and Prejudice
This month, the trial of four Tajik nationals begins; they stand accused of the shooting and arson of the hall. They were arrested hours after the attack and severely beaten, with two admitting guilt. The state of the suspects – one of them barely appearing conscious – brought up questions about whether they spoke freely.
Anti-migrant rhetoric has been on the rise in the 2020s, but this incident caused policies and general hostility to spiral.
The government introduced frequent checks on foreign workers, questioning the legality of their status, levying heavy fines upon the smallest of violations, and even immediately deporting offenders. Leaving the state for a short time sometimes resulted in being added to a deportation list without explanation.
Later, 13 regions introduced a ban on the employment of migrants in certain sectors: catering, hospitality, finance, taxi drivers, and couriers, which were the sectors most migrants relied on for jobs.
The easing of deportation rules resulted in targeted raids; in the six months after April 2024, around 86,000 foreign citizens were detained and expelled, according to Russian human rights organization Memorial. This is double the figure of the same period in 2023. 17,000 of them were Tajik citizens. In all of 2023, Tajik citizens’ deportations numbered only 11,000.
Xenophobia Despite Economic Needs
Immigrants in Russia have reported several occasions of stressful situations, simply for looking foreign. Standing in line as people stare or being denied service in a bank or at the hospital for no reason. A nationwide ban barred children who couldn’t speak Russian from attending school.
Reports say police have raided construction sites and mosques, coercing immigrants there to join the military to fight in Ukraine. Some with recently acquired naturalized citizenship – who haven’t yet registered with the military – are told they can go to prison or be deported. For those with residency, their documentation is threatened to be withheld, while a fast track is offered in exchange for service.
Despite these measures, an economic balance is tipped with the rapid attack on immigrants. Parviz Mullodzhanov, a political scientist from Tajikistan, says that any further restriction on employing migrants would cause more issues for Russia.
“While both sides would suffer from such restrictions, in the long run Russia stands to lose more. Cutting labor migration would increase social tensions and risks of instability in Central Asia. On the other hand, it could ultimately reduce Moscow’s leverage in the region, leaving Russia at risk of losing influence over Central Asian states,” he said.
Tajikistan is in a uniquely vulnerable situation due to Russia’s policies. In 2024, 45% of its GDP came from remittances of its citizens working in Russia, the largest proportion in the world, according to the World Bank.
Tajikistan’s job market struggles with a shortage of positions, meaning that if those workers came home and failed to find jobs, it could lead to seeking informal jobs, creating a risk of social unrest and crime. The World Bank projected that the country’s GDP growth could drop from 8.4% in 2024 to 6.5% in 2025 as a result.
For Russia, there is a political reason behind the crackdown on migrants as well. The initial intention was to show strength to stop such attacks from happening, with parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodi saying that foreign nationals carrying out “illegal activity” could be deported without a court order.
The Investigative Committee’s Bastrykin said immigrants “physically occupy our territory, not just with their ideology but with specific buildings” like mosques.
Tajik journalist Sher Khashimov says there is an agenda behind all this rhetoric.
“Russia has started lumping together all ‘the external enemies’ that it’s created over the years for itself: the migrants, the Ukrainians, the West,” he said. “It all becomes this part of this single narrative of Russia being this castle under siege, and Putin being the only person who is on the lookout for ordinary Russians.”
