Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

The crisis erupted for Russian ruble is considered as a major threat to Central Asian countries, in particular Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the economies of which heavily depend on funds sent from Russia by their own citizens working in this country.

Today, ruble’s drop has become a regional problem, having a huge impact on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The data released by the World Bank showed that 31.5 percent of Kyrgyz and 42 percent of Tajik economy rely on remittances.

Some 1.23 million out of 8-million population of Tajikistan worked in Russia as of 2013, according to the data released by the Federal Migration Service of Russia. The inflow of money transfers from Russia to Tajikistan stood at $3.587 billion in 2013, which accounts for 50 percent of the country’s GDP.

Ruble’s drop has decreased the volume of remittances, thus, workers from neighbouring Central Asian countries are not interested in staying and working in Russia anymore.

The situation of migrant workers worsened even more after the Russian government announced that the migrant workers have to take an exam on Russian language, legislation and history and to have voluntary health insurance policy and obtain a patent for a job.

Experts believe that ruble will continue to drop in 2015. So, the trend leaves only one way-out from the current situation for migrants: to look for new income sources. But in which country?

If the migrants from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan return home, they will not be able to find an appropriate job. If they choose China as a destination, they will unlikely be able to find job there, as China faces difficulties in providing its own population with job.

Kazakhstan, with its huge natural resources and stable economy, can become a relatively normal choice for working. However, this country’s economy is closely connected with Russia, so when problems occur in Russian economy, Kazakhstan feels them much more than other countries.

So, the migrants will likely return Russia and continue working in this crisis-hit country bearing economic difficulties on their own shoulders.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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