Economic development of Russia under the influence of migration processes

Abstract

This paper describes the problem of the labor migrant's employment economic efficiency impact on the Russian national economy. The purpose of this study is to identify the contradiction between the micro and macro levels in an economy using migrants' labor, whose qualification is lower than the local employees'. It is emphasized that the benefits, obtained by the business in the process of hiring a cheaper labor force, make it possible to reduce the production costs due to lower wages of these workers and to increase the competitiveness of the production. At the same time, this leads to the employer's disinterest in the introduction of new technologies, thus hindering the growth of labor productivity at Russian enterprises. At the macroeconomic level, this is reflected in the rate of economic growth, its compliance with modern requirements of hightech production. These contradictions lead to the effect of a "migration trap" in which the national economy is entering. To identify the economic benefits of using migrant labor at the macroeconomic level, the study provides statistically valid calculation of the share of the GDP produced by the migrants in the Russian economy, revenues and expenses of the state budget to address the problems conjugated with using of foreign labor. The findings suggest lack of effective use of migrant labor in the Russian economy. Having carried out all the calculations the authors faced with limited statistical accounting of some indicators alongside with the need of an expert estimating, that introduces variability in the calculations being made. Keywords: labor migration; tax payments; the share of the GDP produced by migrants; incomes and losses of the state budget in the process of using foreign labor. JEL code: J6 The current status of the problem The development of economic ties between countries, the transfer of capital, knowledge and skills to organize production processes, is accompanied by increasing migration of the population in search of more profitable places and spheres of employment. The UN data on international migration show that if migrants made up to 2.8% of all people living on the planet in 2000, by 2015 this number rose to 3.3%.(see International Migration Report 2015). In absolute terms, the development of migration processes looks even more impressive: according to the international statistics in 2013 the total number of migrants was 232 million people, and in 2015 this figure already increased up to 244 million people (see International Migration Report 2015). At the same time Russia is one of the leaders among the countries that are attractive for migrants.