The Council of Ministers aims to ensure net migration growth of 50,000 people by 2030. In 2026–30, annual net migration should amount to 10,000 people. Government Resolution No. 699 of 2 December, which approves the state programme “Balanced Labour Market” for 2026–30, was published today on the National Legal Internet Portal.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is designated as the responsible authority. The state programme includes two subprogrammes:
- “Labour Market”
- “Migration”
The overall objective of the programme is to promote effective employment. To achieve this, the following tasks must be addressed:
- consolidation of domestic labour resources;
- improvement of working conditions and occupational safety;
- encouragement of inflows of qualified foreign labour in accordance with labour market needs.
The first two tasks are addressed under the “Labour Market” subprogramme, while the third is addressed under the “Migration” subprogramme.
Under the “Labour Market” subprogramme, the following measures are envisaged:
- removal of regulatory barriers and a “fast-track entry” into the labour market (shorter training periods, introduction of a “partial qualification” mechanism to activate the labour potential of individuals able to perform part of a job function rather than a full profession, establishment of modern competence requirements);
- development of flexible working arrangements and remote forms of employment;
- expansion of age limits for hiring (encouraging prolonged working activity by boosting youth employment and employment among people above working age);
- expansion of employers’ access to financial support for training employees and creating jobs for young people and persons with disabilities;
- improving the efficiency of work organisation, including by improving the quality of managerial staff (increasing the share of managers with business education) and developing mentoring systems;
- digitalisation of employment-related business processes (expanding the functionality of the state employment service information portal and digitising public services in the employment sphere).
As a result of this subprogramme, the government expects employers’ staffing needs to be met at no less than 97% by 2023, while the level of occupational injuries should not exceed 46 cases per 100,000 workers. The unemployment rate among the working-age population should not exceed 3.8%.
The “Migration” subprogramme notes that population is a strategic resource of the state and that serious demographic challenges pose a real threat to national security.
Officials state that “Belarus faces low rates of natural population reproduction. In such conditions, ensuring net migration growth should have a positive impact on stabilising the population size.”
Belarus remains attractive for labour migrants, and its attractiveness is reinforced by its membership in the EAEU and CIS.
In the past five years, net migration has been positive. In the first half of 2025, 21,000 foreign workers arrived in Belarus, compared with 12,000 in the same period of 2024.
The programme also cites data on the number of foreign workers who arrived in Belarus in recent years:
- 2024 — 33,800 people
- 2023 — 13,400 people
- 2022 — 11,000 people
- 2021 — 13,700 people
The number of asylum applications has also increased. In the first half of 2025, 1,200 applications were submitted. Last year, 2,200 were filed; in 2023 — 1,400; in 2022 — 2,600; and in 2021 — 486.
Key measures under the “Migration” subprogramme include:
- development of additional mechanisms to attract and effectively utilise foreign labour, including highly qualified specialists;
- creating conditions for the adaptation and integration of migrants and fostering constructive interaction between migrants and the host society;
- fulfilling international obligations to protect the rights of forced migrants;
- establishing effective migration control, including for the prevention of offences committed by foreign nationals.
The government’s goal is to ensure net migration growth of 10,000 people annually, or 50,000 over the programme period.
The “Migration” subprogramme also includes the following measures:
- introduction of a simplified mechanism for granting permanent residence permits to foreigners who have obtained vocational, secondary specialised, higher or research-oriented education (2029);
- amendments to the laws “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Republic of Belarus”, “On External Labour Migration”, “On Granting Refugee Status, Additional Protection, Asylum and Temporary Protection to Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Republic of Belarus”, and amendments to citizenship legislation (2026–27);
- legal education and awareness programmes for foreigners as part of integration processes to raise legal awareness and promote law-abiding behaviour (2026–30);
- organisation of language courses for foreigners, including those granted refugee status, additional protection or asylum in Belarus, with the support of international organisations (2026–30);
- development of a mobile application on external labour migration issues for employers and migrant workers (2028);
- establishment of an advanced training programme for senior officials and specialists of state bodies responsible for national security on migration management and related unlawful activities (2026–30);
- improvement of procedures for obtaining administrative migration data from the Interior Ministry’s automated information systems for official statistics (2026–27);
- conclusion of agreements on readmission, migration cooperation and organised recruitment of foreign labour (2026–30), among others.
A total of 289.56 million roubles is planned to be allocated for the five-year implementation of the “Balanced Labour Market” state programme, including 288 million roubles from the national budget.
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