NEW SPLASH OF MIGRATION OF THE KYRGYZ POPULATION

12.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Bright"">An unprecedented outbreak of
migration from Kyrgyzstan started in the early 1990s, after the republic
gained its independence. The growth of social and economic problems, and
regional conflicts in nearby states such as Tajikistan and Afghanistan, are
leading to intensification of destructive migration processes. The
migration-related yearly decrease in population reached its peak in 1993, when
it was estimated at 121 thousand people. The year 2000 was marked by another
splash in numbers of people who wanted to abandon the country. According to
the Department for Migration of Kyrgyz republic, the number of people who left
the country in the period of time between 1990-2001 estimates at 450 thousand.
It is a fairly big figure for a country with the population of 4,8 million.

font-weight:normal">Until approximately mid-2000, the biggest ethnic group after
the Kyrgyz was Russian. However, the large exodus of ethnic Russians (it is
estimated that 62% have left) meant that their share in the Kyrgyz population
dropped from 21,1 % in 1990 to 12% presently. This has put Russians in third
place, behind the Uzbeks, estimated at 13% of the population of the country.

font-weight:normal">At the bottom of this issue lays not only the hard
socio-economic situation, but also the absence of career perspectives for
ethnic minorities. Currently, there is a dominance of people of Kyrgyz
ethnicity in state agencies and public administrative sector of the republic.
The number of non-Kyrgyz holding positions in the state apparatus is quickly
decreasing. The introduction of examinations in the Kyrgyz language for
government officials became an engine to eliminate access of the
non-Kyrgyz-speaking population to government and state bodies.

font-weight:normal">One of the peculiarities of the demographic situation of
Kyrgyzstan is that the majority of Russian migrants are not those dwelling in
the capital city of Bishkek and its surroundings, the Chui Oblast. As a result
of the vast immigration of the Russian population from Kyrgyzstan, there were
not only quantitative but also qualitative changes in the structure of labor
resources of the republic. The workers who had left and many others leaving
were typically involved in fields that require high qualifications.

font-weight:normal">In general, migration led to a deterioration of the level
and structure of the labor potential of the republic, as huge amounts of
financial resources and time are needed for the restoration of the
intellectual and cultural human potential. The helplessness of the government
in checking this process brought a misbalance in the economic and cultural
developments in various regions of the country – a misbalance that continues
to grow.

font-weight:normal">The government of Kyrgyzstan tried to reestablish stability
and reduce the exodus of the Russian population, but its steps showed little
success. In 1998 the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation
opened an office in Kyrgyzstan, which is there to regulate migration streams
between the two countries. Its head, Vasiliy Ostapchuk, admits that the
migration situation in Kyrgyzstan has recently accelerated. “Migration in
Kyrgyzstan has noticeably gotten younger. 
If in the first part of the 1990s mostly people of older generation
went to Russia to reunite with their relatives and children, then nowadays
citizens born in 1960s and 1970s leave.  By
profession they are mostly drivers, builders, engineers or technical workers,
teachers, and medical staff.  All
in all, they are those, whose labor is not demanded in Kyrgyzstan.”

font-weight:normal">According to independent analysts, Russia needs a large
annual stream of immigrants in order to check the decrease of its population.
That’s why effective mechanisms are created for the stimulation of departure
of Russian population from the “near abroad”.

font-weight:normal">In the beginning of 2001, Russian president Vladimir Putin
signed the decree “On agencies of the Ministry of federal, national and
migration politics affairs of the Russian Federation abroad”, in accordance
with which branches of the Federal Migration Service in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Latvia receive the status of second embassies
abroad.  Experts see the reason of
this in the kind of reorganization in that these countries differ in increased
level of migration activity.  During
3 years of work of the Federal Migration Service at the Embassy of Russian
Federation in Kyrgyz Republic about 250 thousand people turned to this agency
with different problems and questions. Lawyer Natalya Ablova thinks that
“Autumn 2001 may be marked by the beginning of an unprecedented wave of
migration of Russians from Kyrgyzstan. An unfavorable demographic situation in
Russia, where the level of deaths exceeds the level of births since 1992, can
contribute to this.”  The
population of Russia was reduced by 768 thousand people in 1999.

font-weight:normal">Kyrgyz authorities are trying to stop the demographic crisis
in their own republic with the help of only declarative methods, but it does
not entail any positive results.  Call
for patriotic feelings and unsupported promises are a very weak stimuli for
the citizens, who are trying to choose the place to live.

mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">By Nadezhda Romanchuk and Nasiba
Hudaibergenova, students at the department of International and
Comparative Politics, American University in Kyrgyzstan.