Russian regions after Moscow refuse to gastropeters’ services. A total of 1.3-1.4 million applications for foreign labor are submitted by employers for the next year. This means that in crisis times, Russians are ready to engage in even unskilled labor. Last year, it was planned to establish a quota for 2009 on foreign labor – no more than 3.8 million people. However, the president of the country intervened in the process and, at his proposal, this quota was reduced by half – to 1.9 million. The goal that was pursued by this decision is to reduce competition in the labor market between foreign and Russian specialists.
But even this limit is currently exhausted by 60%. Moreover, the reason is not that employers do not want to hire foreign citizens to work. From this year, a law prohibiting the involvement of foreigners to those companies that did not take part in the application campaign at the beginning of the year has entered into force. It should also be noted that due to the crisis, gastrobaucers themselves are much less striving to go to Russia to earn money. Not least, this is due to the freezing of many construction and other projects.