ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — It was intended as a friendly guide to Russia for labor migrants from Central Asia, but instead it turned into an insult. The brochure with practical advice on how to deal with border guards, police and other authorities was illustrated with depictions of migrant workers as paintbrushes, brooms and other tools of low-skilled work.
The anger exploded this week. The government of Tajikistan formally urged Russian authorities to remove the book from circulation, and representatives of the Uzbek community voiced their outrage.
Activists see the book as a reflection of the discrimination against the growing number of impoverished, mostly Muslim, migrants in Russia who are working construction, cleaning offices, sweeping streets and collecting garbage.
“It’s xenophobia pure and clear,” said Lev Ponomaryov, a veteran Russian human rights defender. “They show residents of St. Petersburg as humans and depict migrants as construction tools.”
Even though “A Labor Migrant’s Handbook” was promoted on a city government website, authorities denied any connection to it. A non-government organization that published 10,000 copies of the book in the Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Tajik languages insisted it just wanted to provide useful information about everyday life in Russia.
