Decision by the Federal Bureau of Yabloko, adopted on 10.04.2025, published on 24.04.2025

Photo by Irina Buzhor, Kommersant

On 1 April, a law came into force prohibiting Russian schools from accepting migrant children who do not know the Russian language.

The Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party notes that this law not only contradicts the Russian Constitution and laws that guarantee the right to education for all children, including children of foreigners, but also obvisouly creates numerous dangers for the country regarding socialisation and integration of migrants into Russian society.

While justifying these measures by the extremely low level of literacy and socialisation among migrants, Russian legislators, in pursuit of simple populist solutions, have adopted a mechanism that significantly exacerbates these problems. The ban on attending school without knowledge of Russian language means in practice that migrant children will stay at home, receive family education or, more likely, receive no education at all. Denying migrant children the prospects to communicate with other children of the same age, we deprive them of incentives to learn the Russian language. Thereby, the Russian state leaves them without the possibility of socialisation and adaptation, leaving them outside Russian society, beyond the boundaries of our cultural and civilisational identity. This will obviously lead to additional criminalisation and social tensions, and instead of reducing the crime rate among migrants – we will see it increase.

All significant research in migration policies shows that school is the main adaptation mechanism for migrants: most children master the language in the process of learning and their daily interaction with classmates and teachers.

Language problems arise precisely due to the lack of effective adaptation programmes for migrants – both adults and minors. Russia does not have any unified system for teaching Russian to migrant children, and our schools do not offer additional or preparatory Russian language courses. The country also has poor teacher training for working with multi-ethnic classes.

Instead of prohibition, the Yabloko party proposes introducing a mandatory preparatory course in Russian language for migrant children entering school. This will help children who do not know Russian to quickly master its basics, socialise, and integrate into Russian society in a civilised form.

We propose to repeal the adopted law as a populist and ill-conceived measure contradicting the norms of the Constitution, as well as the security interests of the Russian Federation.

Nikolai Rybakov,

Yabloko Chairman