HASfter the March 22 attacks in Moscow, four individuals, all from Tajikistan, were charged by Russian authorities, who quickly made their identities known and released excerpts from interrogations.
Islam Khalilov, a teenager from Kyrgyzstan who works in the locker room at Cross City Hall, the site of the attacks, played a crucial role in saving several hundred people. These events serve as a reminder of how complex the situation of Central Asian migrants living in Russia is and how it could now become even more difficult.
Russia maintains with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have relations of mutual dependence. Remittances sent by migrants are of vital importance to their economies. For example, Russia remains the main receiving country for Tajik migrants, around 1 million of them live there, according to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM). And if remittances sent by workers abroad represent 50.9% of Tajik gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Bankthese sums come overwhelmingly from Russia.
The granting of simplified citizenship
Likewise, Kyrgyzstan estimates the number of its nationals living in Russia at 750,000, but these official figures represent only a fraction of the reality. Remittances to this country correspond to 32% of Kyrgyz GDP, still according to the World Bank. Uzbekistan, the region’s most populous country, has the largest number of migrants in Russia, with more than 1.1 million of its citizens having settled there, according to IOMan estimate undoubtedly below reality.
But Russia also depends heavily on foreign labor, especially with the war. The granting of Russian citizenship to Central Asian migrants has also been simplified several times since 2022 for those participating in military operations, because migrants are not only considered as workers, but also as possible soldiers. During the first quarter of 2023, every day, nearly 500 Tajiks obtained Russian citizenship, according to Xiromon Bakozoda, Tajik journalist for Radio Free Europe. Enlistment is sometimes done by force.
The war in Ukraine is also a source of economic difficulties for Central Asian migrants, in particular because of the fluctuation of the ruble against the American dollar. Restrictions prohibiting the use of migrants have also been imposed in 2024 in various sectors of the economy. Likewise, the hunt for undocumented immigrants has intensified. Twice in 2023, operation “Nelegal 2023” was launched by the authorities.
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