On Legal Possibilities of Limiting Labor Migration within the Eurasian Economic Union: from Theory to Practice in Conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The article is focused on the study of the legal possibilities of restricting labor migration flows within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter – the EAEU, the Union). Taking into account the fact that the deepening of the economic integration between the EAEU’s member states (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia) also largely depends on the efficient operation of the common labor market, it is especially relevant to ensure that legislative measures aimed at overcoming the negative consequences of the spread of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) fully correspond to the legal conditions for its development. The analysis carried out by the authors is based on a two-level system of studying the relevant legal norms – the level of international treaties and acts that constitute the law of the EAEU, and the level of national legislation of the Union member states. Although Section XXVI of the Treaty on the EAEU secures the freedom of movement of labor in the Eurasian space, the norms of this agreement, however, provide for the possibility of introducing certain restrictions on admission to the common labor market of citizens of the Union member states. In view of the fact that the relevant provisions of the EAEU law were widely tested in practice in 2020, the authors consider them through the prism of those anti-crisis and stabilization measures that have been taken by the states in connection with the threat of further spread of the new infection. At the same time, the imposed restrictions are to be examined in this work with the use of a comparative method of analysis: to what extent the regulation of the legal status of citizens of the Union member states in the territories of the host state has been changed in the national legislation of the Union countries. In the final part of the present article, the authors assess the legal compliance of the taken measures with the statutory goals of the EAEU, as well as review the current problems in the further development of an agreed and effective system for regulating migration processes, given the actions of states to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection.