Abstract: The article presents the results of the analysis of the fundamental documents of the migration policy of the Russian Federation of the last 30 years, the purpose of which was to identify changes in the fundamental approaches of the authorities in relation to migration and the corresponding legal and institutional changes.
An array of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation from 1989 to 2023 (about 100 documents), concepts of migration policy, materials of speeches by the Head of State, meetings of various interdepartmental commissions and high-level profile working groups were used as sources. The study used comparative legal analysis; content analysis; synchronous analysis; general logical approaches and methods. The obtained results allowed us to identify seven stages of the evolution of the Russian migration policy. The boundaries in which the "fluctuation of the course" of migration policy occurs are determined. It is shown that the priorities that the migration policy should correspond to are equally significant, but competing, which leads to inconsistency of the measures taken. It is noted that in recent years, migration policy has been increasingly using adaptive management technologies, which contains risks for long-term goal-setting. The definition of the concept "limits of policy variability" is given. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop a long-term Strategy of the state migration policy, which will take into account the systemic nature of the phenomenon of migration and the multilevel effects that arise as a result of the impact on the migration situation.

Abstract: The authors aims to analyze the mechanisms used by the Russian federal subjects for affecting the national migration policy based on the regional labor markets' needs. The authors examined the main opportunities of the regions, available to date, for adjusting the decisions of the federal government in the regulating labor migration flows as well as their institutional and legal foundations. The source base of research is an array of strategic planning documents, regulatory legal acts, administrative documents of public authorities of the Russian Federation and subjects of the Russian Federation for the period of 2000-2022.
The authors present a new definition of the concept of "state policy in the labor immigration regulations". Despite the well-known problem of the lack of a clear delineation of the powers and responsibilities of federal and regional public authorities in migration policy, the regions of the Russian Federation have a number of opportunities to participate both in the implementation of state migration policy and in its regulation for answering the demands of regional labor markets. Authors concluded, despite the peculiarities of regional labor markets, the key control parameter of the regional migration policy is the indicator of the level of social tensions on the labor market. In order to meet the key performance indicators established by the federal center, the subjects of the Russian Federation have to manipulate admissions/prohibitions on attracting foreign labor, responding to rapid economic changes. This makes regional migration policy unpredictable and unstable.