External labor migration in modern Russia: socio-legal and criminological contexts

In modern Russia, criminological and sociological problems of external labor migration are relevant and topical, and primarily associated with large-scale uncontrolled and illegal migration, as well as with the ongoing criminalization of the sphere of migration relations. The problems accumulated in the migration area pose a significant threat to the national security of our country. The author has made an attempt to identify social hotbeds and determinants of the criminalization of migration processes and to formulate special measures and means aimed at decriminalizing the sphere of migration relations and reducing the level of illegal migration in Russia. The aim was to consider the current processes in the field of external labor migration in the Russian Federation and specific tasks to identify the main problems in this area in the socio-legal and criminological context and to propose effective ways to solve them, which are characterized by novelty and originality both in practical and theoretical terms. The research was carried out on the basis of empirical methods of cognition (conversations, in-depth interviews, sociological survey), as well as general scientific and interdisciplinary methods of cognition (comparative legal, formal legal and structural-functional). The key idea of this publication is that the scale and level of criminological and sociological problems in the field of external labor migration require development and adoption of a codified regulatory legal act — Migration Code of the Russian Federation, which would prescribe in detail and enshrine legal status, order of entry and stay, duties and rights of external migrants in Russia. Due to the special criminological and social significance of the processes of social adaptation, acculturation and integration of external labor migrants, the author of the publication proposes to develop and adopt a Federal Law «On social and cultural adaptation and integration of external labor migrants in the Russian Federation» with detailed regulation of appropriate measures, procedures and mechanisms.