Enforcing Russia's migrant quotas
Russian police are raiding the country's markets.
They are enforcing quotas on the number of foreigners working in the retail trade - new laws limit that to 40%.
That is just for now. By the end of the year, there are not supposed to be any.
The building supplies market in a far-flung northern suburb of Moscow is the target of an ongoing operation.
Market patrols
The officers pile out of a bus and get to work. They split up into pairs and fan out among the shops and stalls.
Who will clean the streets? All those sorts of jobs fall on immigrants' shoulders
Roman, immigrant
They seem pretty clear what they are looking for: anyone whose appearance suggests they might come from the Caucasus, Central Asia, or further afield.
The process looks pretty simple. If you are not white, they would like to see your documents.
The slightest irregularity gets the suspected offender marched off for questioning.
'Positive effect'
Viktor Markov from the Russian immigration service is on hand to oversee the operation.
A policeman checks a passport of one of the detained men
The slightest irregularity in a passport could mean deportation
"The number of foreigners at the markets has definitely gone down," he tells me as officers search the suspects they are holding.
"More and more people are applying for residence permits. So I think altogether these laws have had a positive effect."
The quotas became law on 1 January.
By 15 January, foreigners must make up no more than 40% of those working in the retail trade in Russia.
Then, between 1 April and the end of the year, that number is supposed to go down to zero.
The new legislation was proposed after race riots in northern Russia late last summer.
President Vladimir Putin spoke of the need to defend the interests of what he called the "native population".
Markets - often a source of employment for Russia's army of immigrant workers - were singled out.
Tajik hardship
Many of them live in miserable conditions.
Roman and his neighbour's two-year-old daughter
Roman lives in squalid conditions - like many other migrants
Roman came to Moscow from Tajikistan in the 1990s.
He shares a tiny room no more than a few metres square with two other people. When we meet, he is also babysitting for a neighbour's two-year-old daughter.
More than a quarter of his meagre wage goes on the corner he calls home.
Roman knows that he may have to leave Russia. But he questions whether the new laws are workable.
"If they deport us, we'll leave," he tells me.
"But the people here won't do the jobs we do. Who's going to do the work? Who will clean the streets? All those sort of jobs fall on immigrants' shoulders," he says, slapping his own shoulder for emphasis.
'Police corruption'
Human rights groups concede that the legislation will simplify some bureaucratic processes.
An immigrant in Moscow
Firewood is the only heating fuel for some Moscow migrants
People arriving in Russia can now register by telegram instead of having a lengthy wait at a police station.
That will not alter the fact that, on the face of it, foreigners are simply being banned from a huge area of economic activity.
Bakhroom Khamruyev campaigns for the rights of Central Asian immigrants in Russia.
He suspects, like Roman, that the new law will make life tougher. He also suspects that much will depend on how the law is actually applied.
That is because despite many attempts to eradicate it, police corruption in this country is rife.
"This is playing straight into the hands of corrupt police officers," Mr Khamruyev says of the new laws.
"They've always taken bribes from migrants, and they won't stop now."
Russia is getting rich. The economy is growing, but short life expectancy and a low birth rate mean the population is falling.
So Russia needs to expand its workforce. Immigrants are not encouraged to apply.
Errr... nobody wants to work ???
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Originally Posted by doc_bean
But I think generally you can very well start your own business here without any special qualifications as long as you are not entering the playgrounds of one of those groups who have built high fences around their territories, for example tax advisers, apothecaries, etc. ... 
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