Russia to bring in 1 million skilled workers from India to tackle labour crunch

Migrant workers from India began to arrive at enterprises in Russian regions in 2024.

Russia plans to bring in up to 1 million foreign workers by year-end to tackle labour shortages in its major industrial hubs, a business leader said, according to PTI.

Andrey Besedin, the head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) news agency,"As far as I know, by the end of the year, 1 million specialists from India will come to Russia, including the Sverdlovsk region. A new Consulate General is opening in Yekaterinburg, which will deal with these issues."

Besedin highlighted that the influx of Indian migrants is expected to help bridge the gap in skilled labour across Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, known for its industrial and military production hubs, including factories like Uralmash and Ural Wagon Zavod, the maker of T-90 tanks. He pointed out that while production demands are growing, the region struggles with a shortfall in trained workers, partly due to military deployments and waning interest among youth in factory jobs.

While Besedin acknowledged potential plans to bring in workers from Sri Lanka and North Korea, he noted the process remains complicated. Indian workers began arriving in Russian industries in 2024, with facilities like Kaliningrad’s fish processing unit "Za Rodinu" bringing them in amid rising labour shortages. Russia's labour ministry projects a shortfall of 3.1 million workers by 2030.

It proposed an increase in the quota for inviting qualified foreign workers in 2025 by 1.5 times to 0.23 million people. According to the ministry’s estimate, Russian industrial enterprises attracted 47 thousand qualified migrants from non-CIS countries in 2024.

The Ministry of Economic Development also called for expanding the geography of attracting workers from other countries. However, Russian authorities tightened migration legislation to curb the influx of migrants from the former Soviet republics after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on March 22 last year.

*With Agency Inputs