Over on her very interesting blog, our fellow FPA analyst Bonnie Boyd provides insights into the new policies of Tajik President Rakhmon, which have an impact on Tajik migrants and their remittance payments.
…Though President Rakhmon has not yet descended into full Tajikistanibashi mode, this ruling will have several short-term and medium-term effects on its own. First of all, it creates an anti-Russian feeling in a state which has already lost considerable numbers of its ethnic Russian population through out-migration. Second, it puts in jeopardy temporary migrants from Tajikistan in Slavic states, especially Russia, but also possibly Kazakhstan. These migrants are already in some physical jeopardy in Russia, and retaliatory acts against them in the Russian Federation are sure to step up. The loss to Tajikistan's remittance economy will be considerable. According to a January, 2007 World Bank Report on the European and Central Asian economy remittances make up 12.5% of Tajikistan's GDP (look at figure 2.1)….
Read her full article here..
