Lukashenka Infelicitously ‘Puts Out’ Troublesome Topic

Why does Minsk want so bad to invite a whole labour army of Pakistanis?

Lukashenka's new statements on the Pakistani topic, made during his meeting with officials on 25 April, are unlikely to calm down the Belarusians.

Firstly, he dropped a phrase: ‘We will have, let's say, 60 or 100 foreigners out of a thousand people. This is a normal practice’.

Well, let's say that for Belarus it is actually an abnormal load of migrants, a stress for the system and society.

Let's make a simple calculation. According to the data of the National Statistics Committee for February 2025, 4.141 million people were employed in the Belarusian economy. 60-100 foreign workers per thousand is between 250 thousand and 400 thousand on a national scale. And if they come with their families...

At the same time, the ruler, with his usual illogic, said that ‘in general, we have enough labour resources’. Then why make unnecessary fuss? Did he just want to console Prime Minister Sharif, who had snatched the opportunity and pathetically showed off with his agreement with Lukashenka upon returning to his homeland?

Well, the most important thing is that in the end the leader deflected the blame onto his compatriots:

- I can say in the simple way, unpopularly: if we are afraid of foreigners, then we should work hard enough for three, at least for two.

He reminded that labour productivity in Belarus is still two or three times lower than in the European Union.

Indeed, the difference is obvious. However, is it because the Belarusians are lazy? On the contrary, the EU countries, where many of them were forced to emigrate to, note that the majority of Belarusians are hard-working, diligent and have high labour discipline. And their labour productivity miraculously becomes European there.

The lag of the native country in this indicator is caused, firstly, by the Soviet legacy. The USSR had lost the economic competition to the West, and even the Baltic States, which have joined the EU, find it difficult to overcome this historical gap.

However, the regime's leader is not only nostalgic about the ‘bright past’, but also tries to reproduce it in many ways. In particular, he manages the economy using command-and-control methods, retains a large inefficient public sector, and avoids reforms. This is the second reason for lagging behind.

Thirdly, for the sake of preserving personal power, the ruler agreed to a close alliance with Moscow and a severe conflict with the West. This cuts Belarus off the advanced technologies capable of raising the very productivity.

Finally, why does Minsk want so badly to invite a whole labour army of Pakistanis? Is it because a huge amount of workplaces have been opened up all at once?

Isn't it because the authorities themselves, through repressions, squeezed out of the country hundreds of thousands of compatriots, among whom there are many talented, enterprising, highly qualified people?

Aliaksandr Klaskouski, ‘Pozirk’

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