From the very first years after the collapse of the USSR, Uzbekistan regularly supplied labor migrants to Russia, and over the years their flow only increased. If at first it was mainly Russian-speaking citizens of the republic who went to live and work in the Russian Federation, then after most of them settled in a new place, they were replaced by representatives of the titular nation. For the time being, official Tashkent did not react in any way to the mass exodus of Uzbeks to Russia, but now Islam Karimov himself has become concerned about the problem of migrants.

On January 30, Karimov turned 75 years old. During the 23 years of his presidency, the population of Uzbekistan, despite the outflow of Russian speakers and the return of Crimean Tatars, Greeks and representatives of other nationalities to their historical homeland, increased from 19 to 29 million people. Every year the republic grows by 300 thousand new citizens, and for the fact that all talk about the country’s overpopulation is so far purely theoretical, local authorities should thank those who leave en masse to work abroad. Basically, Uzbeks go to Russia, but if we talk about the countries of the former Union, then we should not discount Ukraine and Kazakhstan (we are, of course, talking about low-skilled labor force flocking abroad en masse, and not about high-class specialists who travel to Western Europe and the USA).

In Ukraine, the bulk of Uzbeks work in Crimea - they are brought there by Crimean Tatars from among those who were deported to Uzbekistan back in 1944 and returned to the peninsula in post-Soviet times. Uzbeks, like their fellow countrymen in other countries, work in Crimea as builders and auxiliary workers, traders in markets, assistants in cafes and restaurants serving Tatar cuisine. Often, employers use their assistants as virtual slaves, taking away their passports, keeping them locked up and starving, and forcing them to work 16 hours a day. Stories about this are regularly published in the local press. But despite this, Uzbeks continue to go to Crimea, which is largely facilitated by a mentality similar to the Tatars, which has developed over many years of living together.

Uzbek migration to Crimea is seasonal, as is the whole life of the peninsula. With each Tashkent-Simferopol flight, 100-150 people arrive. Some of them are trying to break into Crimea under the guise of descendants of deported Tatars, acquiring the necessary documents in their homeland. Many of those who do not have money for accommodation or for a return ticket, and who also have poor command of the Russian language (which, of course, complicates any dialogue), are turned back by local authorities. The total number of seasonal Uzbek migrants in Crimea in 2008 was estimated at eight thousand people; now it can be assumed that it has grown to 10-15 thousand.

In Kazakhstan, only in the capital of the country, Astana, with its population of 700 thousand people, 30 thousand Uzbek citizens currently work. Just five years ago, according to a study by the International Organization for Migration, the number of labor migrants from Uzbekistan in Southern Kazakhstan, where up to 90 percent of guest workers move, was about 200 thousand people. But this figure is clearly underestimated - public organizations already then counted about a million people coming to work from Uzbekistan in the republic. In particular, residents of Karakalpakia and Khorezm are moving en masse to Kazakhstan, where the standard of living is one of the lowest in the country. At the same time, the influx of migrants to Kazakhstan will only grow, so that in this regard, the southern neighbor can even compete with Russia.

But Russia will still not be left without migrants, including from Uzbekistan. Only according to official data from the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation as of December 14, 2012, every fourth guest worker in Russia was a citizen of Uzbekistan, and in total there were 2.3 million people. Uzbeks occupy first place in the structure of the total number of labor migrants (in second place are “Zrobitchans” from Ukraine - 1.4 million people) and have been leading in this indicator for several years now.

“Ghost Bus”: the journey of guest workers from Bukhara to Moscow Photo: Alexander Zemlyanichenko / AP 1 /17

But these are official reports, and they are unlikely to be exactly true. At the same time, the need for the services of visiting workers, taking into account the natural decline of its own working-age population, is constantly growing in Russia - in the next 20 years, the country, according to World Bank estimates, will need another 12 million guest workers. Consequently, of this number, Uzbeks, if the current proportions are maintained, will constitute another three million. Let’s add here the children of migrants and Uzbeks who were born and naturalized in Russia, working in Kazakhstan and other countries, and we get a very substantial diaspora - more than a third of the population of the “metropolis” itself. Most of them, today and tomorrow, will be in one or another employer country on a temporary basis, but some will settle down and receive new citizenship.

As the number of migrant workers grows, so does the amount of money they send home, and this is considerable money. In 2009, Uzbekistan received 2.052 billion dollars in this way; in 2011, this amount more than doubled and amounted to 4.9 billion (this is almost five times the volume of foreign currency earned in a year from the sale of cotton, with a nominal GDP of Uzbekistan of 45 billion dollars), and its further growth is predicted. This, as the media write , stabilized the exchange rate of the soum, which at the end of 2012 on the “black market” did not decrease by the usual 20-30 percent, but increased by 1.8 percent.

Of course, the situation here is not the same as in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, where workers who went abroad provide 47 and 29 percent of the GDP of their countries, respectively - it’s just that the economy of Uzbekistan itself is of some kind, but not comparable with the indicators of its agricultural neighbors. And yet, Uzbeks also send home 10-12 percent of their GDP from abroad (some experts, however, put the figure at 30 percent).

To say that in Uzbekistan all of the above processes are approved by the authorities would be to sin against the truth. In Tashkent, emigrants have long been looked at with a certain jealousy (“Where are you going?”, “Why is it worse with us?”) and to some extent they were even hindered. Those who leave the country in search of work unofficially bear the status of “traitor to the motherland,” although, of course, no one subjects them to any persecution for this.

Officially, the resolution of issues related to ensuring the employment of citizens of the republic abroad is entrusted to the Agency for External Labor Migration (AVTM), which, according to eyewitnesses, has plastered all OVIRs of the country with warnings about the dangers of those who wish to independently go to work abroad - namely, slavery and involvement in prostitution. But you can go to Russia, as well as to other countries with which Uzbekistan has a visa-free regime, without a so-called exit visa, which requires registration and permission from law enforcement agencies. Particular difficulties in obtaining an exit visa arise for women under 35 years of age - to obtain an exit visa they need an invitation from the host party, a marriage certificate (or the consent of their parents, who should be brought to the OVIR) and a number of other certificates.

However, Uzbek day laborers prefer to travel to the CIS countries on their own, without resorting to the services of an agency. Well, in fact, where will the future builder, seller, janitor or “bombila” get the copy of the contract with the future employer required by Uzbek officials, if he doesn’t even really know which Russian city he will end up in? Previously, the agency successfully worked only with migrants going to work in South Korea (at one time, these countries signed an agreement on temporary employment of citizens of Uzbekistan in South Korea). From the point of view of migration to the CIS countries, the activities of AVTM turned out to be ineffective.

Poster depicting Islam Karimov in Tashkent Photo: Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

“Why did he go there? What, this man couldn’t earn as much at home as he did as a janitor in Moscow? It’s a shame for the nation if our people can only work as janitors,” Islam Karimov said these words on January 18 at the annual meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. This is how the President of Uzbekistan reacted to the news of the murder of one of the Uzbek guest workers in the Russian capital (such murders, as well as the crimes of visitors themselves against local residents, actually occur regularly). The answer to the Uzbek leader’s question is obvious: no, he couldn’t earn money at home. The “net” salary of an Uzbek janitor in Moscow is approximately $250-400 - this is more than the average salary in Uzbekistan, even according to official data.

In his speech, Karimov also touched upon the topic of unemployment among Uzbek youth, placing the blame for shortcomings in this area for some reason on the prosecutor general of the republic (the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan will be responsible for the murder of a janitor in Moscow, according to Karimov). Last August, the State Committee on Statistics and Employment reported that the unemployment rate in the country had decreased and amounted to 4.8 percent of the economically active population. However, it is unlikely that Karimov would be worried about such an indicator, especially since it is most likely made up - according to the World Bank, the real unemployment rate in Uzbekistan ranges from 20 to 30 percent, depending on the region.

According to experts, Karimov’s indignation is feigned, and it is difficult to find a logical grain in his statements. On the one hand, the president never tires of reporting on the unprecedented pace of economic growth in the country, increasing exports and imports, and on the other hand, he talks about the outflow of the working population and the growth of unemployment.

Karimov’s mutually exclusive speeches correlate perfectly with the outflow of the population from the country, on the one hand, and the results of a survey conducted among the population of the republic by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion “Izhtimoiy Fikr”, on the other. The results of the sociological study were published on January 15 by the state news agency of Uzbekistan “UzA”. According to 90 percent of respondents, in the coming year the socio-economic situation in the country will become even better, and “the confidence of the residents of Uzbekistan in the future is growing from year to year.”

The vast majority of respondents were satisfied with the successes achieved in the economy (95.4 percent), ensuring human rights (93.9 percent), social protection of the population, creating conditions for freedom of economic activity, effective development of small businesses and private entrepreneurship (94.1) , ensuring personal safety (96.6). At the same time, the overwhelming majority of respondents, of course, named the president of the country as the guarantor of such well-being. Who sincerely wonders why millions of his fellow citizens are ready to travel far away to sweep the streets, while risking falling into slavery or falling victim to interethnic conflicts.

Lenta.ru: Former USSR: Gastarbeiterstan