KYRGYZSTAN: Rising numbers of migrants are seeking work in Russia, leaving their families behind

Record ID: 348481

  • Title: KYRGYZSTAN: Rising numbers of migrants are seeking work in Russia, leaving their families behind
  • Date: 15th November 2011
  • Summary: WOMAN SAYING GOODBYE TO CHILD
  • Embargoed: 30th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan
  • Country: Kyrgyzstan
  • Topics: International Relations,Economy,Employment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABQYQ3EDR4ZL1PSDP4C4STOBHM
  • Story Text: As Russia faces a demographic crisis and falling birthrate, it is increasingly relying on the millions of labour migrants from Central Asia who come into the country every year. Many migrants send the bulk of their earnings home, others settle in Russia for the long term.
    The 'Bishkek Train Station 2' in Kyrgyzstan's capital is full of activity as the direct train to Moscow waits at the platform. Although it is near the winter season, a time when many migrants make the reverse trip from Russia's capital home with their earnings, passengers crowd onto the train headed for Russia.
    People hug their families and say emotional goodbyes before boarding the train taking them on a three day journey to Moscow.
    "The newly elected president should be wise, because we are watching the young people who are leaving like soldiers. This is bad and we must think about them and about how to give them work (in Kyrgyzstan)," said Abdila Raimov, waiting on the platform, before boarding the train. Raimov was on his way to visit his children who left Kyrgyzstan for Russia and now live there permanently.
    Another Kyrgyz woman said goodbye to her family as she and her daughter prepared to board the train. Natalia Maksutova was travelling to join her husband who is a Russian citizen. Living conditions are better in Russia, said Maksutova.
    "We our going to Russia, the father (of my child) is Russian and so we have a reunion of the family - as I am going together with my child. So we are citizens of Kyrgyzstan, going to be with Daddy," Natalia said, adding. "It is better to live there and conditions are better."
    Working migrants from Kyrgyzstan make up the majority of the total Central Asian working force - the scope of which is disputed by experts. The Kyrgyz government is worried by the numbers of migrants who leave to work in Russia.
    "Based on the results of nine months, 30,000 people have left our republic, so we have a deficit (of people of working age), " Kyrgyzstan's Minister of Employment and Immigration, Almacbek Abitov, told Reuters.
    "The migrants who work (in Russia) illegally - their numbers are two to three times higher than these numbers. So the number is actually about 500,000 (Kyrgyz working in Russia)," added Abitov.
    Citizens of Central Asian countries often have a visa-free travel status in Russia and many migrants go to work there without any legal rights.
    Migrant groups in Russia estimate the number of migrants working as up to 12 million people, but say only 1.5 million have work permits to be there.
    Abitov said he said he hopes that Kyrgyzstan's decision to join a customs union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus will help solve the problem of migrants working in Russia without legal status.
    "We are going to enter the Customs Union (with Russia) and as a member of the government, I voted for this with both hands. Why? Because, around ninety-nine percent of the unsolved problems of labour migrants will be resolved (inside the union)," said Abitov.
    Migrant workers in Russia are often employed in low skilled jobs such as street sweepers and road diggers, and builders on building sites, often with no fixed contract with their employers.
    As the winter sets in, many of Russia's millions of migrants go home for the season, after spending a working summer in the Moscow.
    Marat Shaidildayev, 32, worked for over a year and a half in Russia, starting out with odd jobs in Moscow but eventually finding work as a carpenter on building sites in the Russian city of Istra, earning a good wage of up to $1,000 U.S. per month.
    He returned home to Bishkek this week to spend the winter with his family - his wife Janara and their two children Bayaman, a boy of seven and Ayana, a girl of four years old.
    Welcoming her husband home, Janara prepared a special celebration dinner.
    "Our life here is very hard. Our wages are very low and that is why he went to Moscow to make money. Thank god, he worked there and now he came back. It is very hard to be without my husband, since we are a single family. It is better not to separate from the family who are wife, son and daughter," she said.
    Marat said he made the choice to leave Kyrgyzstan to try and earn more money for his family.
    "I used to work in the police security department. I was there for eight to nine years, and because of the low pay, I had to leave the job and my family and go to Russia to get work," he said, embracing his small daughter throughout the meal.
    He says he will go back to Russia if he does not find work in Kyrgyzstan.
    "Thank God that I made more money there than I did here. The guys there promised to call for me when the season starts again, and if they do, I will probably go back. If I do not find a good job here, then I will have to go back. But if I do return, I will try to work in the same place as before," said Marat.
    A report earlier this month on Russia's demographics by the Berlin Institute predicts that migration from Central Asia will continue as the population of these countries rises, in contrast to Russia. Tajikistan, for example, is set to grow by 35% by 2030.
    The influx of migrants from central Asia has given fuel to nationalistic sentiments in the county due to economic slowdown and high unemployment, even though analysts say Russia will rely more and more on migrants for economic growth in the medium term as its own population shrinks.
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