Автор спектакля «Узбек» – стать легальным мигрантом в Москве невозможно
Талгат Баталов / Talgat Batalov
The Author of Uzbek – how becoming a legal migrant in Moscow is impossible
translated by Kristina Aleksanyan
News Host: This problem has a flip side: the migrants themselves. Last year in Moscow a documentary play was launched called Uzbek. From the stage, director and actor Talgat Batalov tells the audience — Muscovites— about the typical fate of a migrant worker in Russia. He knows about this firsthand as he himself came to the Russian capital from Tashkent 6 years ago. In light of the events in Biryulov, it seems that the play will not lose its relevance for a long time. Russia through the eyes of migrants: we talked about this with the director Batalov and his heroes.
Talgat Batalov: When I was making this play, I thought that maybe this situation will change and after it, it will be possible to say that migrants’ lives are getting better. However, it is only getting worse.
Ikhtar Dzumaev (cook from Tajikistan): To get a job… There are too many people and it is generally impossible to get a job. People go and search for a job for weeks and cannot get anything. I myself got a job recently, 3-4 days ago.
Talgat Batalov: Everything has been set up in a way that you can’t work legally. Everything is set up in a way that you have to buy it from third parties, third companies, because officially, as it is written on the website of FMS (Federal Migration Service), it is absolutely impossible to get it (work permit). Or you have to live in a tent for three months in front of FMS. This is a big question. So everything has been set up so that you keep feeding the corruption machine.
Rasul Sheranov (janitor from Uzbekistan): If we need an apartment, they will ask where are you from, what is your citizenship. We will reply “Uzbekistan.” They will say, “no, won’t happen.” This also happens.
Talgat Batalov: This is a form of “housing nationalism.” The last time I was looking for an apartment I made an announcement that I am not a Slav, I have bad habits and I have pets. I am looking for an apartment.
Bakhodur Shodiev (salesman from Tajikistan): For instance, I work at the market. I work as a salesman. In a day I earn 1,000 rubles, but a Russian gets minimum 1,500 or 2,000 rubles a day. Maybe it’s because of my race, I don’t know.
Talgat Batalov: If, for example, an Uzbek is hired as a janitor, in fact another Russian person is officially registered for that position. This Russian gets half of the janitor’s salary for doing nothing. While, the janitor who does the work gets the second half.
Ikhtar Dzumaev (cook from Tajikistan): Whatever you earn, you don’t actually get to take it all home. In reality, if I had a little more money, I would not have traveled here. Maybe I would have traveled just to have a look around. I would have not chosen to live the rest of my life here.
Talgat Batalov: In principle, an Uzbek in Russia can’t feel good. He is a southern man, he’s not used to this. What do you think, if everything is good for a person, would he move to a northern country to go to work at 4 in the morning? He is doing this not because he is crazy but because there’s nowhere else to go. Where should they go?
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nalIy5XFk4E