ABSTRACT
International migration is today one of the key processes and most important discussion topics in Russia. According to the official data, from 1991 to 2000, after the collapse of the USSR, 8.4 million people immigrated to the country (Heleniak 2008; Karachurina 2012). From 2001 to 2013, there were 3.3 million immigrants (Federal State Statistic Service 2015). Thus, within two decades almost 12 million immigrants (8–9 per cent of the country’s permanent population) moved to Russia in order to live there permanently; the vast majority of them came from the former Soviet republics. Almost the same number, approximately 11 million, of foreign nationals have been found to reside in Russia every year in recent years (Federal Migration Service 2015). Many of them live there permanently, but do not apply for a residence permit or citizenship. Moreover, a significant proportion of this category of migrants is on rota, i.e. those leaving the country are replaced with new foreign nationals. These migrants are also predominantly either former Soviet nationals or descendants thereof.
