Uzbek labor migrants began to choose Kazakhstan instead of Russia

Tengrinews.kz - More and more labor migrants from Uzbekistan began to choose Kazakhstan in search of earnings, according to Gazeta.uz.
If at the beginning of 2024, 196.8 thousand citizens of Uzbekistan worked in Kazakhstan, then by the beginning of this year, their number had grown to 322.7 thousand.
At the same time, according to the Migration Agency of Uzbekistan, the interest of migrants in working in Russia has noticeably decreased. Their number at the beginning of this year decreased to 698 thousand from 1.2 million at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, Russia remains the leader in the number of migrants from Uzbekistan.
Turkey ranks third after Kazakhstan in terms of the number of migrants from Uzbekistan, but its figures have decreased from 119.8 thousand to 88.7 thousand people.
Overall, according to the Migration Agency, by the beginning of 2025, about 1.35 million Uzbeks are working abroad, which is 34% less than the same period last year, when their number exceeded 2 million.
The trend of migrants returning to their homeland also continues.

"From the beginning of last year to October, about 115 thousand labor migrants returned to Uzbekistan. It was expected that another 250-300 thousand citizens would return by the end of the year," the report says.

The President of the country stressed the importance of their employment and social support.

"As for organized recruitment for work abroad, the figures presented by the agency have undergone rapid growth in 2024. If 35.8 thousand Uzbeks were employed in an organized manner during 2022, 38.4 thousand in 2023, then already in 2024, 161.8 thousand labor migrants underwent the organized recruitment procedure, which shows an increase of more than 4 times," the report says.

The geography of organized employment for the first time covered such countries as Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Qatar, where about 10 thousand people were sent.
According to the agency's deputy director Azimjon Khusanov, in 2024, agreements were concluded with 122 employers from 36 countries. As part of preparing migrants for work abroad, 62.3 thousand citizens were trained in professions and foreign languages.
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