Uzbekistan's labor force has increasingly turned to migration in order to bring money home to families. Now it looks as if immigration is going to be a new revenue-builder for the state.
According to a new resolution, immigrants must now register before going abroad. Not only that, but regional governors of Karapalkstan are also recalling their 200,000 estimated immigrants from abroad. This means that these citizens will have to give up work in order to return home, and then pay for a “Work Abroad Permit” — an exit visa–in order to return to a job, or most likely, look for a new one. Karapalkstan is the poorest district of Uzbekistan–the furthest downstream from all water sources, and the closest to the Aral Sea, where environmental degradation continues to affect the agriculture and health of Karakalpakstan. Its citizens need the remittance economy that labor migration provides perhaps more critically than any other region of Uzbekistan.
In 2006, Russia estimated that there were 1.5 million illegal Uzbekistani immigrants alongside a 102,658 legal immigrants. The new provisions of the resolution are being implemented by the Prosecutor General's office, the National Security Service, and the Ministry of Interior. NSS involvement could imply the use of non-transparent pressures on an already tough situation for Uzbekistan's residents.
