2015-07: Socio-economic consequences of labor migration in Uzbekistan (Working paper)

Abstract

This paper attempts to look closely at socio-economic consequences of migration and remittance decisions of the Uzbek households. We first draw a portrait of a typical migrant worker, paying special attention to the motives for migration and the skills that the migrants possess. We trace the portrait of the typical migrant worker to see the changes in migration profile over time. We also investigate the impact of migration and remittances on livelihoods of migrant-sending families. Using a unique household survey conducted by the German Agency for International Development (GIZ) office in Tashkent, we show that remittances have significant effect on livelihoods of left-behind households. Our results indicate that financial constraints, especially on non-food and health expenditures, act as a push-factor for migration in Uzbekistan.