Russia Starts Importing Labor Migrants From Myanmar

They are recruited to work on construction sites.

Russian regions have begun to attract labor migrants from Myanmar, which is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, Vedomosti writes. In particular, according to the recruiting company Intrud, 24 welders have already arrived in Primorsky Krai and have been employed, and another 30 people are expected to arrive “in the coming months.” All of them have completed Russian language courses and passed an exam in Myanmar. Workers from this Indochinese country have also been attracted to construction sites in Amur Oblast. “We needed welders, fitters, and concrete workers. Of course, first of all, we looked at the quality of the work they perform – here I would like to note that they are almost as good as our specialists in this field,” noted the general director of one of the local construction companies.

Last week, Head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Reshetnikov, speaking in the State Duma, called for solving the problem of labor shortage with the help of labor migrants, including from Myanmar. According to him, 55 million people live in this country, while 6 million of its citizens work abroad. “We are also discussing this with them,” said Reshetnikov. Myanmar can potentially become a source of labor for Russia, but there are several obstacles to this, says Alexey Kirichenko, associate professor at the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University. According to him, legal migrants are required to transfer about 30% of their income through banks, and the market rate in Myanmar is very different from the official one, which reduces the number of people willing to do so. Also, since 2024, the country has had a law on universal military service and young people under 35 are restricted from traveling abroad. Therefore, a large number of migrants from Myanmar can only be attracted through centralized recruitment, Kirichenko concluded. The problem of personnel shortage in Russia worsened after the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022. In the first year of hostilities in the neighboring country, 300 thousand able-bodied men were sent to the front, and another 650 thousand to 1.1 million Russians fled mobilization and war. Over the next two years, about 700 thousand more people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense and went to fight.

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