The agreement between Russia and Tajikistan “On resolving the issues of dual citizenship” has lost its original meaning and contributes to “low-quality migration,” Mikhail Delyagin, Deputy Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee of the State Duma, said. The Deputy Minister proposed to denounce the agreement.
According to the politician, the agreement signed in 1995 was intended to “help Tajikistan quickly heal the wounds of the brutal civil war and create favorable conditions for the carriers of Russian culture who found themselves on its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union or who escaped to Russia, while maintaining their original citizenship rights.”
According to Delyagin, these tasks have been completed and the agreement has completely lost its meaning. At the same time, he noted, preserving this document would mean discriminating against citizens of other countries in the post-Soviet space, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which do not have such agreements. According to him, maintaining the agreement with Tajikistan will provoke the forced migration of its citizens to Russia to obtain Russian citizenship.
“As a result, migration is not so much labor as social (including the case of returning to the homeland to receive a Russian pension while living there) and is essentially a substitution,” the Deputy Minister drew attention to in a letter to the government, processed by Gazeta.Ru.
The letter says that this overloads the social security system of the Russian Federation, “leading to the destruction of the ethnic and religious balance that has developed in Russia, to an increase in crime, to the formation of parallel and simultaneously effective systems of power (as we see from the investigation of related crimes), to the discredit of the Russian state in the eyes of both new and “old” citizens, and, finally, to an unacceptable increase in socio-political tensions okay”.
Ksenia Bondarenko, Associate Professor at the Department of World Economics, Faculty of Economics and Parliamentarians, Higher School of Economics, recalls that a similar agreement was signed with Turkmenistan.
– In 2015, at the initiative of Turkmenistan, this agreement was abolished. In the post-Soviet space, such an agreement exists only with Tajikistan.
The purpose of the agreement was to allow bearers of Russian culture after the collapse of the Soviet Union to acquire Russian citizenship without at the same time renouncing Tajik nationality, for example, due to family ties.
In Russia, dual citizenship is not prohibited, but in many Central Asian republics it is prohibited (or not recognized), especially in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. They believe that if a citizen renounces Uzbek or Kyrgyz citizenship to adopt Russian citizenship, he or she will only be a Russian citizen.
I will not talk about discrimination, because the governments of the Central Asian republics themselves decide on the issue of dual citizenship. For example, Uzbekistan has never raised this issue; it was immediately banned.
For Tajik citizens, having dual citizenship gives them a “plus” compared to other migrants. But there are such advantages in other areas too – for example, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the EAEU in Russia have more favorable working conditions than citizens of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan (these countries are not in the EAEU).
“SP”: What does “low quality migration” mean?
– This term is imprecise in relation to ordinary people and migration as a process. People are different, their careers are also different. I think that, most likely, Delyagin is talking about low-skilled migration, because most, for example, Tajik citizens working in Russia, mainly occupy positions in the construction or service sectors that do not require high qualifications.
But here it should be noted that taxi work, which is better paid, but is clearly not related to highly qualified professions, in some regions of our country requires the person to be a citizen of the Russian Federation.
If residents of Tajikistan receive Russian citizenship while maintaining Tajik citizenship, they have the right to work and pay taxes as Russians, not as foreigners. Foreigners have a basic tax rate of 30% (if the emigrant does not have the status of a highly qualified specialist), while Russians have a minimum personal income tax rate of 13%.
The third, very important point, is that many citizens of the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia do not want to give up their original citizenship because they have a large family at home. They mainly come to Russia as part of return migration, meaning they make money from us to pay for some large-scale purchases back home. Of course, some stay, but mostly they come back because of their children, parents and other relatives.
There are people who received a Russian passport but did not notify their government about this and did not renounce their citizenship. In Uzbekistan, such a scheme used to be called a “traffic light” – in this country, international passports used to be green (until the country carried out reforms and introduced separate domestic and international passports – now they are different colors), but in Russia it was and is red.
Citizens who received Russian citizenship, but did not renounce Uzbek citizenship, flew out of Russia on the “red” route and got there on the “green” route, so as not to “shine” their Russian passport and not apply for renunciation of citizenship – that's why they are called that.
Citizens of Tajikistan with Russian citizenship can safely work in Russia in any specialty, because the Russian passport does not limit them, and at the same time they can easily go to Tajikistan, work there, reunite with their families and after a while return to Russia.
“SP”: At the same time, thanks to Russian citizenship, residents of Tajikistan with dual citizenship will receive Russian subsidies. And this is a burden on our social services.
– This is a sensitive time. If a Tajik migrant receives benefits in Russia, perhaps Tajikistan also pays him at the same time – these details need further clarification.
Currently, since dual nationality is allowed in our country, the government of Tajikistan should most likely take an initiative to cancel the agreement “On the settlement of problems of dual nationality” (as Turkmenistan once did).
But here you need to look at the statistics – if migrants from Tajikistan are highly competitive with those born in Russia in some industries and/or create a big burden on the Russian pension system (there may be other reasons), then we can talk about Russia initiating this issue.
“SP”: Is the number of Tajik citizens wishing to obtain Russian citizenship really increasing?
– Correct. The number of Tajik migrants has increased significantly: in 2023, 31% of all visitors were Tajik citizens. According to other statistics, in the third quarter of this year, the top 10 countries in terms of the number of visitors included Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, China was in third place on the list, and Kazakhstan was in first place (here, the return of Russians to their homeland had a significant impact).
Obtaining Russian citizenship is not so easy; You must meet certain criteria. Russian pensions are indeed very attractive for the elderly in Tajikistan, but this does not mean that Tajik pensioners are granted Russian citizenship without question. This is a very complex process and the requirements become more stringent each year.
The average portrait of an immigrant in Russia is a healthy man who is married and has a complete secondary education. If a migrant works officially then he will have to pay taxes. Overall, migrants perform an important economic and social function.
Tightening immigration laws will eliminate “gray areas” – yes, it reduces illegal migration and regulates residency standards. The latter is the right step in controlling the movement process.
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