of the latter are relatively limited. Russia is also home to a particular category of minority peoples, i.e. small indigenous peoples of the North and Far East, who maintain very traditional lifestyles, often in a hazardous climatic environment, while adapting to the modern world. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation passed legislation to protect the rights of small northern indigenous peoples. Gil-Robles has noted agreements between indigenous representatives and oil companies, which are to compensate for potential damage to people's habitats due to oil exploration. As the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe noted in 2007, despite some initiatives for development, the social and economic situation of numerically small indigenous peoples was affected by recent legislative amendments at the federal level, removing some positive measures as regards their access to land and other natural resources. Alvaro Gil-Robles noted in 2004 that, like many European countries, the Russian Federation is also host to many foreigners who, when concentrated in a particular area, make up so-called new minorities, who experience troubles e.g. with medical treatment due to the absence of registration. Those who are registered encounter other integration problems because of language barriers. The Committee of Ministers noted in 2007 that, despite efforts to improve access to residency registration and citizenship for national minorities, those measures still have not regularised the situation of all concerned. Foreigners and migrants In October 2002 the Russian Federation has introduced new legislation on legal rights of foreigners, designed to control immigration and clarify foreigners' rights. Despite this legal achievement, as of 2004, numerous foreign communities in Russia faced difficulties in practice (according to Álvaro Gil-Robles). As of 2007, almost 8 million migrants were officially registered in Russia, while some 5-7 million migrants do not have legal status. Most of foreigners arriving in Russia are seeking jobs. In many cases they have no preliminary contracts or other agreements with a local employer. A typical problem is the illegal status of many foreigners (i.e., they are not registered and have no identity papers), what deprives them of any social assistance (as of 2004) and often leads to their exploitation by the employer. Despite that, foreigner workers still benefit, what with seeming reluctance of regional authorities to solve the problem forms a sort of modus vivendi. As Gil-Robles noted, it's easy to imagine that illegal status of many foreigners creates grounds for corruption. Illegal