(Read the full article at TASHKENT TIMES)

Dilshodbek, a migrant laborer from the eastern Uzbek city of Qoqand, has worked in Russia for more than a decade. But this year he is going to neighboring Kazakhstan instead.

“The pay is much lower in Kazakhstan, but I calcu that there won’t be much difference in the end,” the 42-year-old Dilshodbek says. “My cousin, who went to Russia in May, spent about $600 for a plane ticket and another $300 for a work permit. You can get to Kazakhstan spending a fraction of that money.”

Unprecedentedly high prices for plane tickets amid the coronavirus pandemic and costly work permits in Russia have forced many Central Asian migrants, like Dilshodbek, to look for jobs in Kazakhstan, the region’s wealthiest country.

Kazakhstan seems to be equally eager to accept the migrant workers, most of whom are willing to do physical work that many locals don’t want to do. Some Kazakh regions have even paid the cost of the migrants’ journey from neighboring countries in order to get workers.

In May, authorities in the western region of Atyrau flew 600 people from Uzbekistan to work in the farming sector. A month earlier, Atyrau officials organized a special charter flight that brought 70 Uzbek migrants to work as street cleaners.