A man holds a poster reading “We stand against xenophobia” during a march in Johannesburg, South Africa, April 23, 2015 (AP photo by Themba Hadebe).

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on immigration and integration policy around the world. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has steadily seeped into mainstream political discourse in South Africa, where immigration has long been a contentious issue as the country is a primary destination for migrants from across the African continent. In the general election earlier this month, both major political parties, the ruling African National Congress and the opposition Democratic Alliance, advocated stricter controls on immigration. In an email interview with WPR, Loren B. Landau, a migration expert at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, discusses the […]

Municipal workers at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, June 26, 2018 (AP photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko). The role of immigrants in the labor force is an unresolved question of Russia's immigration policy.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series on immigration policy around the world. Like many other advanced economies, Russia faces serious demographic challenges in the coming decades. According to government projections, the population is expected to shrink by 2.5 million people by 2035, and the active working-age population will likely decrease by 3.1 million people. Russian federal and state authorities recognize the need to hold these trends in check by keeping the country’s doors open, but immigrants, particularly migrant workers, often have trouble accessing social services and must navigate a complex patchwork of rules and regulations in order […]