Mechanisms for regulating labor migration in the Russian Federation: current status and paths for improvement

This article examines the system of state mechanisms for regulating labor migration in the Russian Federation from 2019 to 2025. The analysis focuses on legal instruments, administrative regulators, and organizational forms of managing migration flows — from the patent system for visa–free migrants to the mechanism for organized recruitment under interstate agreements. The methodological basis of the study is based on comparative legal and statistical methods, an institutional approach to assessing regulatory systems, and an analysis of data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosstat, and the Eurasian Economic Commission for 2020–2025. The study examines the structural contradictions of the current regulatory model: the declared restrictive measures coexist with an objectively growing demand for foreign labor — in 2024, approximately 3.15 million of the 6.3 million foreign nationals who arrived had the purpose of entering for work. The study’s findings demonstrate that the current system creates a persistent gap between a migrant’s legal status and their actual situation in the labor market, and that control mechanisms are systematically overburdened. Suggested areas for improvement include a transition to targeted labor migration under employer responsibility, digitalization of records, and stronger coordination between agencies. The State Migration Policy Concept for 2026–2030 outlines a number of these areas, but their practical implementation requires structural institutional changes.