Uzbeks in Moscow Red Square on the New Year’s day
Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims, their language is Uzbek. The population of Uzbekistan is 31,576,400. Uzbeks represent one of the largest ethnic minorities of the Russian Federation.
According to the 1989 (prior to collapse of USSR) census, 126,899 Uzbeks lived in Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union has had a strong negative impact on the economy of Russia and Uzbekistan, and has provoked a demographic crisis, which caused a massive migration from Uzbekistan to Russia.
Citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan don’t need a visa to enter Russian Federation. They have the right to receive a migration permit, which gives them the right to work. According to Russian Federal Migration Service there are more than 2 million citizens of Uzbekistan today in Russia, of which 760,000 have obtained the permits, and 885,000, have not received the documents, though have indicated that their goal of the visiting Russia is finding job.
The census of 2010 showed that the level of education of Russian Uzbeks is much lower than the general population in the Russian Federation. Most of them are manual workers and their wages are much lower then wages of Russians who do the same jobs.
Uzbeks are not the only ethnic group of labor migrants in Russia. Migrants are arriving from many former Soviet Republics and even from such countries as Mongolia and India. According to official data in 2013 the number of legal and illegal migrant workers in Russia was about 7 million.
For some reason the presence of Uzbeks in Russia is more noticeable then the presence of other ethnic migrants. It is widely known that crowds of Uzbeks filled Moscow Red Square on New Years Day. It shocks many Russians. Nationalistic sentiments are growing in Russia and slogan “Russia is for Russians” becoming more and more popular. Asian migrants are often killed by hoodlums and the police are not very anxious to stop these crimes. Russians don’t feel it improper to express openly their feelings towards Asian migrants, especially Uzbeks on Facebook. One educated women wrote: “I never thought that I’ll be capable of hating any ethnic group so much”.
Moscow janitors
The migrants are hated also by Uzbekistan government. Here is the famous statement made by Uzbek President Islam Karimov on the main channel of the National TV Company of Uzbekistan: “I think the people who go to Moscow and are sweeping the streets over there are just lazy people. I feel disgusted that Uzbeks go there for a piece of bread… They disgrace us.”
Uzbekistan. Wives of men working abroad
A correspondent of BBC Russian Service visited Moscow two-room apartment where 14 young Uzbek janitors were living. One of the janitors said to the correspondent:
“We came here because there are no paid jobs in Uzbekistan. If we were paid a decent wage each month, no one would leave Uzbekistan. No one comes here to stay, only to earn some money. Here we make about ten thousand rubles a month ($ 166). If we could make in Uzbekistan three thousand rubles a month, nobody would go to Russia. Even if we could make only one thousand, we would stay there”.
A migrant’s apartment in Moscow.
My friend, a Russian woman film critic, had a conversation with an Uzbek assistant in a Moscow meat store. The Uzbek lives in a service basement of the meat store, works 15 hours a day and sends almost all the money that he makes to his wife and five children in Uzbekistan. Believe it or not, the man is happy. Here is the translation of the conversation:
“When will you go home, Bako?
Bako sighs and looks into the floor. He is very shy.
“I still need to make some more money. I terribly miss my children.”
“Is such situation right?”
Bako looks surprised. “It always has been like that. Poor men always lived like that.”
“You, Bako, are poor, because your president’s daughter pays one hundred thousand euro for her dinner with a movie star.”
Bako is surprised even more so: “But why would the movie star have dinner with me? It wouldn’t be interesting to him.”
“Is it interesting to him to diner with the president’s daughter?”
“Well …” Bako is embarrassed. “She is the daughter of our president. And our president is trying hard to do his best…”
“And what did he do for you?”
“FOR ME?” Bako almost jumps. “Who am I, for him to care about me? Why should he care about? About not letting the Americans to enslave our country.”
“Americans live well, Bako.”
“I do not believe it! It is we, who live well. I live well. I work, and I get paid. I am paid a little, but still I’m paid. And I am permitted to spend night with a roof over my head.”
Interesting that the anti- American propaganda still lives…… The system is drenched in corruption
Several years ago, my pastor who speaks passible Russian had a layover in Moscow. Wanting to see the sights and practice his Russian, he went out to the streets. He was puzzled because he kept hearing about woodchucks. Being a country boy, he started keeping an eye out for them and could find none. Puzzled he asked about the woodchuck problem only to be informed that it was slang for Asian immigrants. Suddenly it made sense to him. Big lesson on slang and literal translation.