Tashkent Worried about Treatment of Uzbeks in Russia Because It Fears They’ll Come Home, Russian Commentator Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 13 – Tashkent has recently expressed concern about the treatment of ethnic Uzbek migrant workers in the Russian Federation not so much because it cares about what happens to them there but because it is worried about what their possible return home to Uzbekistan will mean, Aleksandr Shustov says.

    According to the Russian commentator, Tashkent fears losing the transfer payments such migrant workers send home now and about the challenges it will face in ensuring that returnees get jobs and are given the social services that they are entitled to (ritmeurasia.ru/news--2025-05-13--uzbekistan-bespokoit-vozmozhnoe-sokraschenie-chisla-trudovyh-migrantov-v-rossii-80284).

    Shustov is half right about Tashkent’s worries. Like other Central Asian governments, the Uzbek one has long been concerned about any rapid return home of Uzbek migrant workers; but at the same time, Uzbekistan has a remarkably good track record in caring for its citizens working abroad.

    For background on Central Asian concerns about returning migrant workers, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/05/moscows-plan-to-deport-illegal.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/11/one-million-migrant-workers-left-russia.html. For Tashkent’s approach, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/for-first-time-ever-uzbek-foreign.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/10/tashkent-wants-to-open-uzbek-schools.html.