Fewer taxi drivers, rising cost of services — migrants in the Republic of Tatarstan to be banned from some jobs

A ban on work even with a patent

In Tatarstan, foreign citizens who have patents have been banned from working in some areas, including taxis. The decree on this was signed by the Rais of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. The ban on hiring such workers will be in effect until 31 December 2025.

According to the document, the restrictions will affect such areas as taxis, financial services, accounting and veterinary medicine. Here is the full list:

• transportation of dangerous goods;
• passenger taxi and rented passenger car activities with drivers;
• activities to provide financial services;
• insurance;
• activities in the field of law and accounting;
• veterinary activities;
• activities of security services, including private ones;
• activities to organise and conduct gambling and betting, to organise and conduct lotteries;
• repair of computers, personal items and household goods. In Tatarstan, foreign citizens who have patents have been banned from working in some areas, including taxis.

Business organisations will be given three months to adapt and reduce the number of foreign workers.

The decree was signed the day before, on 29 January, and comes into force in 10 days.

Ambiguous situation

Realnoe Vremya asked representatives of the industries in which migrants were banned from working for comments. The Main Veterinary Department of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan reported that in state veterinary institutions, “foreign citizens working on the basis of patents have not been involved in work over the past three years”

“Regulation of the work of private veterinary organisations is not within the competence of the Veterinary Department,” they said. Private clinics refused to comment on Minnikhanov’s decree to Realnoe Vremya.

A similar situation is observed in private security organizations. According to the law on private detective and security activities, they are not allowed to hire people who do not have Russian citizenship, said Director of Professional private security company Alexey Tsaryovsky:

“No one works with migrants, they are prohibited. They are simply not issued a private security guard certificate, they do not undergo training. There is no legislative factor for hiring them. No one hires them.”

Most questions arise about migrants working as taxi drivers. As lawyer for the Federation of Car Owners of Russia Vladlen Kopvillem told Realnoe Vremya, the ban decree evokes mixed feelings:

According to him, it is necessary to increase the requirements for taxi drivers in general and for migrants separately.

“Foreigners need to pay some kind of deposit when moving to Russia. This is already done in Europe and the Emirates. There is no point in prohibiting something, the legislation needs to be tightened in general. The news constantly flashes that migrants have broken some law. And who allowed them to do this? Who illegally registered them? I rarely see charges brought against this side, too,” the expert concluded.

Up to 20% of taxi drivers are migrants

Tatarstan was not the first to adopt such a ban — similar restrictions have already been introduced in 46 regions of Russia, head of the press service of the Public Council for the Development of Taxi Yekaterina Kiselyova told Realnoe Vremya. According to the council, in small cities the share of foreign taxi drivers does not exceed 5%, while in capitals it reaches 10-20%.

“The ban is aimed at increasing the transparency and safety of the industry, reducing the number of illegal carriers and increasing control over transportation. All regulations, regional and federal, that were adopted are aimed at ensuring that we can track who exactly is currently driving a specific taxi. Accordingly, many workers from foreign countries may not have documents, and it is almost impossible to monitor such workers,” she explained.

Kiselyova does not see any downsides to the innovation — the shortage of taxi workers remains due to a number of other factors. And the current restrictions, in her opinion, will not affect the problem:

“The shortage was last year, and remains at the same level. But this is influenced by other factors: stricter requirements for carriers and drivers, economic factors such as the high cost of maintaining and servicing taxis, the high cost of purchasing insurance. The cost of a car insurance, for example, for a carrier can be 50-70,000 rubles. This is a high financial barrier to entry into legal activity. The expert assured: practice shows that such decrees do not affect the availability of taxis for citizens. In general, restrictions and other innovations achieve their goals — they increase the level of transparency and legality of the carriers' activities.”

“Now in each region, the corresponding registers have been adopted and are in effect, in which taxi cars are entered: the register of carriers, the register of taxi cars, the register of carriers, where data on the owners of cars is entered, and these owners, according to the decree, are obliged to provide information to the authorities about those people who are driving their cars,” she summed up.

Yandex.Taxi service refused to comment on the ban on hiring migrants as taxi drivers. TaxiLive taxi driver connection center said that the innovations did not affect them: “We have not worked with this category before, so there is nothing to say.”

The proposal for bans was submitted back in 2023

The trend towards tightening Russian migration legislation has its roots in the events of March 2024, the tragedy at Crocus City Hall. However, the proposal to ban migrants from working was submitted to the State Duma much earlier, in October 2023. At that time, the restrictions only applied to schools, taxis, and medical institutions.

“The implementation of the bill will stop the growth of migrants in the specified sectors of the economy, providing additional jobs for Russian citizens,” the explanatory note specified.

The pioneer of this practice was the Magadan Region — here, restrictions were introduced a month after the State Duma’s proposal. By 2024, the idea had already been supported in ten regions: Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Tula, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as in Yugra and Yakutia.

The restriction in the transport sector has become one of the most widespread. Kaluga Region was the first to introduce it back in 2022 — a year before the bill was submitted to the Duma.