Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Assistance centers for labor migrants are being created at the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia. The stated goal is to help migrants adapt to local living conditions in order to keep their outflow.

It is noted that today migrants most often turn to issues related to the legalization of stay on the territory of the Russian Federation, delayed wages, deportation, obtaining a temporary residence permit and citizenship.

In this regard, the centers identified the following as the main tasks: 1) providing advice in the native language of the applicant; 2) teaching the history of Russia, classes in the study of the Russian language and literature; 3) raising the legal level of the migrant.

According to specialists from the centers for assisting migrants, the above measures to provide assistance will help improve relations between migrants and the local population, which will significantly reduce the crime situation and the degree of xenophobia.

However, experts are skeptical about the measures taken by the centers. In their opinion, in a pandemic, when Russians massively lose their jobs, an increase in the level of migrant phobia in Russia is inevitable. Despite the small share of crimes committed by migrants in the total number of criminal acts in the country (3-4%), Russians have a very unfriendly attitude towards migrants.

In addition, the negative attitude of Russians towards migrants is increasing due to the high risks of the spread of coronavirus due to:

1) large numbers of migrants living in one place;

2) limited resources for the purchase of means of prevention, protection and drugs;

3) lack of medical insurance for the overwhelming number of labor migrants.

In general, as experts note, the activities of the centers for helping labor migrants are aimed, on the one hand, at improving the situation of migrants, and on the other, at preventing possible challenges and threats (crime, radicalization, extremism and terrorism), which are actualized against the background of the negative consequences of the pandemic.