Addressing Urban Poverty in Uzbekistan in the Context of the Economic Crisis
V. Internal and External Labour Migration
Earlier UNDP-supported surveys of both internal and external
labour migration give some clues about the scale and character of these
phenomena (Abdullaev 2008). One of the surveys interviewed 1,000
internal labour migrants. According to available information, 70-80%
of internal migrants seek temporary employment in Tashkent City, with
most gravitating toward construction work, services or agriculture-
related activities. Many migrants report that, as a result of their new
incomes, the economic conditions of their families still living in their
place of permanent residence have, in fact, improved.
About 80% of the migrants come from rural areas, not other urban
areas, and many of them would like permanent employment. Over
three-quarters of the migrants are men, most of whom are married,
but there are more and more female migrants. 60% of the migrants
are young, many of them never having been employed in the formal
economy.
The difficulty in registering for temporary residence is one of the
main problems confronting these labour migrants. Although Tashkent
City does not officially restrict the number of temporary residents,
administrative problems and prohibitive costs discourage most
migrants from registering.
Consequently, most migrants are subject to poor working conditions
and low pay, and have little bargaining power to improve their situation.
Hence, facilitating the residence registration of such temporary workers
could play an important role in preventing the rapid and unregulated
growth of a permanent ‘underclass’ of poor informal-sector workers in
major cities such as Tashkent.
Another UNDP-supported survey in 2006 interviewed about
1,500 external labour migrants, who cited their inability to find
decent economic opportunities in Uzbekistan as the major reason for
emigrating.
While such migration occurred even during the Soviet period, it is
now very common; indeed, every fourth person interviewed expressed
an interest in working abroad. Another change is that, whereas most
émigrés were young people, there are now more and more older
émigrés. Furthermore, women are also beginning to emigrate in
significant numbers.
If the trends identified by these UNDP-supported surveys are
representative of conditions across the country, then there will likely
Currently,
however, the
prospects for
migration
abroad are
bleak. Economic
conditions are
projected to
have worsened
in 2009 in
the two main
destinations of
migrants from
Uzbekistan
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