CHINESE DIASPORA IN RUSSIA

At the present stage, the thesis of the “Chinese demographic threat” has decreased to the lowest level, but has not disappeared completely from the mass consciousness, paradoxically combining with increased sympathy for China. The work of Chinese migrants, spreading throughout the country, plays a particularly significant role in the economy of the Russian Far East. In a number of places and a number of industries, Chinese migrants compete with Russians and even drive them out of the market; In other cases, their work is recognized as necessary. The Russian authorities pursue a policy of gradual restriction of foreign, including Chinese, labor, both to facilitate the employment of their own citizens, and to achieve geopolitical goals. The reverse side of this policy is the worsening of the already not very favorable investment climate in the country. The Russian administration has little control over the economic activities of Chinese migrants and even the dynamics of their numbers, but at the same time it tends to lease to the Chinese side large agricultural and forest territories, not seeking to maximize the labor potential of its people and creating a situation impending damage to the country’s economic sovereignty, that causes public outcry. Educational migration from China to Russia, which is not very large, is constrained by a set of causes, including unfavorable living conditions in Russia. The main reason is the low rating of the Russian diploma in the international labor market, including in China itself, and the very modest opportunities that it opens for career growth. The conjugation of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt, apparently, will open up wider opportunities for attracting Chinese labor migrants to the rise of the Russian economy, but their professional structure will hardly change qualitatively. The explosive growth of their number can occur if the EAEU and China decide to establish a free trade zone. However, this is unlikely in the foreseeable future. The Chinese diaspora, being undoubtedly useful for Russia, simultaneously carries a number of risks to it. They can be eliminated or mitigated by establishing clear control and regulation of migrants’ activities, but for this it is necessary to improve the mechanism of managing the economy of the country. 

1. Borevskaya N.E. (2017). Educational cooperation between the Russian Federation and the PRC: new trends at a new stage. Luzyanin S.G. (ed.). Modern Russian-Chinese relations. Moskva: DeLi. 202-224.

2. Gel'bras V.G. (2016). Chinese labor migration in Russia. Aziya i Afrika segod-nya, (5). 50-54

3. Ivanov S.A. (2014). Migration of Chinese capital and labor in the Primorsky Region. Oikumena, (4). S. 35-46.

4. Ivanov S.A. [et al.]. (2016). Chinese capital in the south of the Far East of Russia: the expectations of the state and the realities of interaction. Analytical report. Vladivostok. 29. URL: http://ihaefe.org/files/ana-lytics/chinese-capital-on-fe.pdf (Accessed: 11.10.2017)

5. Larin A.G. (2009). Chinese migrants in Russia. History and modernity. Moskva: Vostochnaya kniga. 511.

6. Larin V.L., Larina L.L. (2016). Th expert community of Pacific Russia on foreign policy, international relations and the development of the Far East (based on the results of the survey 2014-2015), Rossiya i ATR, (1). 5-29.

7. Mishchuk S.N. (2016). The role of Chinese labor migrants in the socio-economic development of the southern regions of the Far East. Russia and China. History and prospects of cooperation. Materials of the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference (Blagoveshchensk-Heihe, May 1618, 2016). Issue 6. Blagoveshchensk: BG-PU. 271-274.

8. Popova E.M. (2017). Evaluation of the prospects for replacing foreign labor with local labor resources in the investment projects implemented with the participation of Chinese capital. Russia and China: history and prospects for cooperation. Materials of the VII International Scientific and Practical Conference. (Blagoveshchensk-Heihe, May 22-23, 2017). Issue 7. Blagoveshchensk: BGPU. 332-336.

9. Sadovskaya E.Yu. (2014). Chinese migration to the Republic of Kazakhstan: Silk Road traditions and new vectors of cooperation. Almaty: Raritet. 443.

10. Smirnova L.N. (2016). Scientific and educational cooperation is the basis of the innovative model of relations between Russia and China. Analiticheskaya zapiska RSMD, (3). 12. URL: http://www.cemi.rs-si.ru/publication/e-publishing/Smirnova_Russia-China-Education-Policybrief3-ru. pdf (Accessed: 11.10.2017)

11. Zheng Xueping. (2010). Chzhungo tsie dui E chzhitsze tou tszy de fensyan' tszi tsi fanfan' [Direct investments of Chinese enterprises in Russia: risks and their prevention]. Siboliyayantszyu, 37 (5). 43-49. (in Chinese)

12. Zhou Tianhe. (2016). Features of the construction and investment business of the company “Huafu” in the Far East of Russia. Russia and China. History and prospects of cooperation. Materials of the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference (Blagoveshchensk-Heihe, May 16-18, 2016). Issue 6. Blagoveshchensk: BGPU. 312-314.

13. Zuenko I. Yu. (2015). The Chinese presence in the agriculture of the Far East: some aspects of the problem. Izvestiya Vostochnogo Instituta, 2 (26). 51-59.