Immigration policy and labor migration in the Russian Federation: the case of St. Petersburg

This diploma thesis focuses on the problem of legal and illegal labor migration in the Russian Federation, both at federal and local levels, namely in St. Petersburg. The thesis has two main objectives and firstly focuses on the federal level. There it attempts to map current migration trends in the Russian Federation with an emphasis on labor migration, its legislation and rights and the status of working migrants in Russian society. It examines the development of migration policy of the Russian Federation from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the present towards a particular group of people. The author of this thesis tries to analyze it critically and to evaluate the effectiveness and the adequacy of taken measures. In order to fulfill the first objective, some additional questions were put. An integral part of the thesis is an analysis of the integration policy of the Russian Federation vis-à-vis working migrants and problems faced by labor migrants on Russian territory. The second objective is to monitor development and current migration situation in the second largest city of the Russian Federation - St. Petersburg. This is a case study, where the emphasis is placed on labor migration and the way how the amendments to federal immigration laws affect the situation in the regions