Central Asian migrants at the Russian labor market during and after pandemic

The processes of adaptation of Central Asian labor migrants to the transformations in the Russian labor market during the pandemic and after its end are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the latter period, when foreign workers were forced to adapt to extraordinary changes in the labor market as a result of foreign policy sanctions after February 2022 and the resulting reduction in the labor force after the start of the military operation. During the pandemic, migrants adapted to the transformations of the Russian labor market, not seeking to leave the Russian labor market, hoping for a quick return to jobs despite lockdowns and mass layoffs, which they managed after the first wave of the pandemic. The vertical and intersectoral mobility of Central Asian migrants is analyzed. The achievements of migrants from Central Asian countries (diversification of economic activities, reduction of the wage gap with Russian citizens, improvement of working conditions and transformation of relations with employers) were largely due to their high mobility during the pandemic. Serious problems of the Russian labor market remain its segmentation with the accompanying overqualification, underutilization of human capital, discriminatory practices limiting access to specific types of economic activity. The article is based on sociological surveys of labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan conducted in 2020–2023.