By Olha Chepil | 2025-09-29

Nearly nine out of 10 migrant children in Russia are being denied entry to school under new admission rules, leaving thousands shut out of classrooms and their futures in limbo. Officials blame missing paperwork and poor Russian-language skills, but critics say the real motive is to turn migrant families into "convenient enemies."

What looks like ordinary red tape -- tests, forms and registrations -- is in fact a system that blocks migrant children from the right to education, analysts say. Official data show only a small fraction of applicants are admitted, while most are turned away amid suspicion, bureaucracy and rising xenophobia.

"The right to an education was the only right that generally speaking somehow existed in Russia. Now it simply doesn't exist," Dmitry Dubrovsky, a lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague, told Kontur.

A school for Russians

Since April 1, foreign children in Russia must pass Russian-language tests and meet strict documentation rules before enrolling in school.

Rosobrnadzor, the education regulator, reported that 23,616 applications were submitted in four months. Just 8,223 were complete. Of those, 5,940 children were allowed to take the language test, and only 2,964 passed, about 12.6% of applicants. More than 87% were denied entry.

"Children of migrants will not be admitted to schools if they are not proficient in Russian," read a March press release by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. The statement added that schools also check applicants' legal status.

Officials frame the rules as procedural, but critics say the system denies children access to education.

Human Rights Watch researcher Syinat Sultanalieva wrote in May that the policy "creates a systemic barrier" and violates Russia's human rights obligations. She added that all children in Russia should have equal access to education regardless of nationality or language.

The new wave of laws is being accompanied by political initiatives. In September, a bill before the State Duma proposed barring migrant workers from bringing their families to Russia, citing the strain on schools and kindergartens.

At the same time, xenophobic rhetoric has grown in the media and on blogging platforms such as Dzen, where users have posted comments like "All this human garbage needs to get out of Russia" and calls to send migrants "to concentration camps and to the village."

Experts say these policies and attitudes reflect a broader campaign against migrant families.

"From the earliest age migrant children face corruption, discrimination, abuse, exploitation, racism and religious xenophobia in Russia," rights activist and labor migration specialist Valentina Chupik told Kontur.

A weapon of discrimination

Chupik said excluding migrant children from Russian schools is not new. The recent language tests, she argued, simply provide another justification.

"Migrant children were rejected under these idiotic pretexts before too. This has just added another excuse," she said, calling the tests "a screen" that deprives large numbers of children of an education.

The policy is less about language than about erecting barriers for families with non-Slavic features, Chupik noted. Formal requirements, such as registration documents that migrants often cannot obtain, function as tools of exclusion.

"They're making a point of requiring this in order to hinder children from being admitted," she said, describing the focus on Russian proficiency as public relations aimed at portraying migrants as outsiders.

The approach fits a broader Kremlin strategy of finding "convenient enemies" to distract from economic and political problems, Chupik argued.

"It's very easy to portray as an enemy people who stand out from the crowd and don't look like you. So migrants become the enemies," she said.

Impeding future

Russia's testing system shifts responsibility away from the state by excluding migrant children instead of providing language support, according to Dubrovsky.

"Russia is plainly unprepared. It does not have a decent education system for non-Russian children. . . . Instead of solving this problem, it just decided to not enroll those children in school," he said.

He contrasted Russia's approach with the United States and Europe, where schools must accept children and offer language assistance.

"Schools in the United States accept all children, even homeless ones. If they don't speak English, a group is created and a special teacher works with them. . . . But there's nothing like that at all in Russia," Dubrovsky said.

He warned that the policy harms both migrants and Russia, which is "deliberately forgoing significant economic growth." Keeping children out of school, he argued, denies the country future citizens and workers while fueling xenophobia and division.

"This is a massive disgrace that is out of step with international standards," he said.