DUSHANBE, August 6, 2010, Asia-Plus — According to the findings of a survey by the Gallup research service, almost every fourth family (24%) in Tajikistan is mainly dependent upon remittances from their relatives living and working in other countries.
Gallup has surveyed people in 12 post-Soviet republics.
Tajikistan is followed by Moldova (23%), and Kyrgyzstan with 16 percent is on the third place. Armenia (13%) and Georgia (9%) are also among the top five.
In Uzbekistan, remittance-dependent families constitute 7 percent, in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – 6 percent, Belarus – 5 percent, Ukraine and Turkmenistan – 4 percent. The lowest index in terms of the percentage of remittance-dependent families has been reported in the Russian Federation – 1 percent.
9 percent of those surveyed in Tajikistan said they would like to work outside the country and 28 percent of those surveyed said they wanted to leave Tajikistan forever.
According to various reports, an estimated 600,000 to 1.5 million Tajik labor migrants now work outside Tajikistan, primarily in Russia but also in neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as well as other CIS nations.
Labor migrants are a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan, and labor migrants’ remittances keep many families at home above the poverty line.
According to the data from the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), 868.8 million U.S. dollars have been remitted to banks in Tajikistan over the first six months of this year, which is 24.7 percent more than in the same period last year.
