Anti-Immigration Policy in russia Has Reduced Enrollment in First Grades by 300,000 Schoolchildren

In 2025, russian schools enrolled about 1.5 million first-graders – by 300,000 fewer than last year.

One of the key reasons for the decline was the state duma’s law prohibiting the enrollment of migrants’ children who did not pass a russian language test. In particular, 26.5 % of migrants’ children failed the test in Yekaterinburg, 38 % – in Kaliningrad region, 41 %  – in Tyumen region, 48 % – in Novosibirsk region, and 50 % – in St. Petersburg.

Anti-immigration rhetoric in russia has intensified since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. Authorities are conducting mass raids, adopting new restrictive regulations, while  high-ranking officials regularly accuse migrants of increasing crime and forming “ethnic enclaves”. A member of the state duma romanov has stated that migrant’s children in schools are an “additional burden on teachers” and “a drag on the whole class”. In addition, LDPR leader slutsky has proposed making senior high school education for migrants’ children fee-based.

This collapse is also directly linked to a profound demographic crisis. By May 2025, the total fertility rate in russia had fallen to 1.376 children per woman, the lowest since 2006. At this, a rate of at least 2.7 children per woman is needed to simply maintain the population at the same level.

In 2024, only 1.222 million babies were born in russia, the lowest number since 1999. In the first quarter of 2025, the decline accelerated: only 288,800 children were born (down by 4 % from the same period last year).