After years of fearing a flood of Chinese immigration, Russians in eastern Siberia are slowly coming to terms with a migration flow that has become vital to the region's economic development.
"We've had a Chinese cobbler working near our house for five years now and he does everything quickly and for cheap, not like our Russian ones," said Anna Makarova, a Russian pensioner living in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, some 50km from the border.
"If they want honest work, they can come," Makarova said.
City and regional authorities say Vladivostok and the surrounding Primorye region can no longer do without Chinese immigration and have introduced a program to attract more Chinese immigrants.
"Look how hard-working they are," said Polina Mironova, a Vladivostok student. "Our workers have all gone home, but they'll keep painting walls until sundown."
Fourteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union, it is difficult to imagine Vladivostok without the sight of Chinese laborers repairing roads, houses and parks.
A first wave of immigration came to Primorye in the early 1990s, when the local population was struggling to get hold of the most basic necessities in this remote region, 9,300km east of Moscow.
The Chinese opened giant markets in Vladivostok and other cities in the region, where even the poorest could buy what they needed.
But the new arrivals got a wary welcome because of long-standing Sino-Soviet tensions that culminated in a bloody border clash between the Soviet Union and China on Zhen Bao island, known as Damansky in Russian, in 1969 that killed dozens and risked sparking a wider conflict.
During the 1990s, fear of invasion gave way to an acceptance of immigration.
Officially, nearly 14,000 Chinese have gained the right to work in Primorye so far this year, and the authorities are due to issue up to 18,000 work permits next year.
But the real figures are higher because of illegal immigration, say local officials, who deported 2,235 mostly Chinese illegal immigrants last year.
"It is important that the flow be controlled and not pose a threat to the well-being and security of local residents," said a recent local administration report, which vowed to stamp out illegal immigration but stressed the importance of immigrants for demographic stability.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS