President of Miratorg proposed to reduce the number of migrants to increase wages

In an interview with RBC, the president of “Miratorg,” Viktor Linnik,
expressed concern about the increasing number of labor migrants in Russia and the low wages of Russian citizens.

Photo: Internet

The agricultural holding “Miratorg” is the largest vertically integrated agroholding in Russia, engaged in feed production, animal husbandry, meat processing, and the sale of finished products to retail chains.

In his interview with the RBC television channel on October 4, he proposed to reduce quotas for attracting foreign workers by three to four times.

“When the country imports labor migrants, the cost of labor decreases, and Russians have to compete with foreign workers,” Linnik said.

According to him, the entry of labor migrants into the country lowers wage levels. In this case, Russians find themselves in a situation where they cannot compete with foreign workers, and with such low wages, the demand for ordinary professions decreases.

“Of course, when wages are low, which of our children will go to work as a carpenter or mason?” — said the president of “Miratorg.”

Linnik stated that there are “many tools” to address the current situation. In particular, he suggested limiting quotas for labor migrants and also expressed that he sees “common sense” in the idea of replacing foreign workers with prisoners.

In his opinion, trying to solve problems by importing migrants is an illusion.

“If we look strategically at the development of the holding or the industry, the issue of migrants should not be on the agenda,” he believes.

At the same time, against the backdrop of the pandemic and anti-coronavirus restrictions, Russian authorities have repeatedly spoken about the shortage of labor migrants.

In particular, there have been reports of a shortage of foreign labor in the construction sector as well as in agriculture, and the situation has been characterized as catastrophic.

Earlier, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin also stated that the departure of labor migrants from Russia was one of the reasons for rising inflation.