DUSHANBE, January 14, 2016, Asia-Plus – Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) reports that 3.8 percent of Tajik labor migrants left Russia in a month to January 12, 2016.

As of January 12, there were 862,321 Tajik migrants in Russia, according to statement released by the FMS.

According to the FMS, 4.1 percent of Uzbek labor migrants have left Russia over the report period.  As of January 12, there were more than 1.8 millions Uzbek migrants in Russia.

Meanwhile, the number of Kyrgyz nationals staying in Russia has risen 2 percent in a month to January 12, 2016.  553,910 Kyrgyz nationals are currently staying in the Russian Federation.

Kyrgyzstan became a full-fledged member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EES) in August 2015 after it formally abolished customs controls along its border with Kazakhstan.

We will recall that an article “Tajikistan: Remittance Values Fall” by Catherine Putz that was posted on The Diplomat’s website on January 5 notes that while the value of remittances has indeed fallen, workers are not returning in droves as some feared.

Tajikistan relies heavily on remittances and is Central Asia’s poorest state, therefore concerns were high that remittances would fall and workers would return to a country that didn’t have job for them.  However, workers are not returning in droves as some feared, the article notes.

In 2012, Tajikistan pulled in $3.7 billion in remittances–comprising just over half of the country’s $7.6 billion GDP.  Since, that percentage has fallen but not by much.  The World Bank stated that in 2013, remittances comprised 49 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP.  The expectation was, and remains, that remittances will continue to fall but not as a product of better employment opportunities in Tajikistan but economic downturns in the countries to which Tajiks travel for work.

According to the article, this explains the fact that the return migration rate has not exploded–despite the fall in the value of remittances.  The World Bank’s survey,  Tajikistan Economic Update, found that the share of migrants returning, which was about 2 percent in May, rose to just over 3 percent by August and then dropped back toward 2 percent in September.