MOSCOW, December 12 (RAPSI) – Lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party proposed that all conversations between migrant laborers during working hours should be held in Russian, RIA Novosti reports on Thursday.

The lawmakers say that a lot of migrant laborers often do not speak the language, and converse in their native languages which “aggravates the native population”.

The draft proposes a ban on using foreign languages by foreigners and stateless individuals working in Russia on contract during working hours.

The lawmakers say that similar legislative acts have been used in the U.S. and a number of European countries, “protecting their citizens and their native language.”

Russia depends heavily on migrant laborers, mostly from former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, but public opinion about their effect on crime rates and employment opportunities has gotten more negative over the last decade, and large-scale anti-migrant violence has broken out in various parts of the country several times in recent years.

Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service, also said Monday that the country’s system of allocating quotas for work permits for foreigners should be reformed, and that the FMS will propose new solutions to the migrant labor issue over the next year.

The FMS estimates that about 3.5 million migrants are currently living in Russia illegally, though other analysts put the number far higher.