Returning Migrants Swell Unemployment Figures in South

The city government in Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, reports that the number of employed has jumped to over 17,500 from 10,000 last year.

Returning Migrants Swell Unemployment Figures in South

The city government in Osh, in southern Kyrgyzstan, reports that the number of employed has jumped to over 17,500 from 10,000 last year.

Tuesday, 31 March, 2009
IWPR

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Reporter Janar Akaev found that some of the new unemployed are migrants coming back from the increasingly difficult labour markets of crisis-hit Russia and Kazakstan.



“Last year we sent 3,000 of our [city’s] citizens to Russia, but this year the Russians haven’t sent even one request [to hire migrant labour],” said Nurila Joldosheva of Osh’s employment department. “The number of unemployed is now rising due to the migrants who are returning to us.”



Akaev found that another category of unemployed consist of people who have left low-paid work in Kyrgyzstan in hope of finding something better to help them weather the increasingly difficult economic environment.



He interviewed Semetey, a doctor who has been unemployed for a month after leaving his hospital job in order to find a job that pays “just enough to live on”.
Frontline Updates
Support local journalists