DUSHANBE, October 8, 2009, Asia-Plus -- Over the first nine months of this year, labor migrants’ remittances to Tajikistan have decreased by 70 percent, while the number of labor migrants themselves has decreased by 30 percent, Firouz Saidov, the head of the department for social sphere and labor market studies within the Center for Strategic Studies, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe today.

According to him, specialists from the Center for Strategic Studies jointly with independent experts have conducted an opinion poll on problems of labor migration.  “In all 3,000 former labor migrants have been surveyed in 31 districts across the country,” said Saidov, “The main reason for decrease in the number of labor migrants and their remittances to the country is a serious impact of the global financial crisis on the labor market in the Russian Federation, which is the primary receiving country for labor migrants from Tajikistan.”

The expert also noted that the number of labor migrants sending money for starting and doing private business has increased.

“Over the same nine-month period,  some 25 percent of labor migrants have sent money to the country for starting and doing business, while before that, only 12 percent of Tajik labor migrants had been sending money for these purposes,” said Saidov, “It means that our labor migrants have begun paying more attention to starting their own businesses that will allow creating new jobs in the country.”

He also noted that labor migration from Tajikistan became more organized compared to the previous years.

According to him, specialists from the Center for Strategic Studies expected labor migrants’ remittances to increase next year.