Any Large-Scale Return of Kyrgyz Workers Now in Russia to Their Homeland will Destabilize It, Kyrgyzstan Deputies Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – Russia’s intensifying anti-immigrant policies and attitudes are leading to the flight of many Central Asian migrant workers to their homelands. There has been a great deal of discussion about the impact of their departure on Russia but far less about what their return to Central Asia will mean for the countries of that region.

            But increasingly Central Asian elites are focusing on the problems that the return of migrant workers who have been in the Russian Federation will create, with ever more suggesting that the return of such people will send incomes plummeting and undermine stability in the region.

            The latest example of such expression of concerns came yesterday from Kyrgyzstan where parliamentarians denounced the mistreatment of Kyrgyz migrants in Russia and expressed fears many of them will now return to their homeland (stanradar.com/news/full/56043-migratsija-mozhet-poshatnut-politicheskuju-stabilnost-kirgizii.html).

            Their return, the deputies said, will seriously reduce incomes in those portions of Kyrgyzstan from which most migrants come, exacerbating social and economic tensions, and even threatening the stability of the country. In fact, the parliamentarians said, there was evidence that this is already happening.

            Officials and commentators in other Central Asian states from which migrant workers to Russia come have said much the same and even begun to think about how they can counter those consequences especially if Moscow does not end but rather intensifies its anti-migrant policies (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/dushanbe-prepares-for-massive-return.html).