The Art of Survival: Kyrgyz Labor Migration, Human Capital, and Social Networks

Central Asia Economic Paper No. 7, April 2013

By Evgeny Vinokurov

Age, education, income discrepancy, and unemployment level are the main factors that define the portrait of the Kyrgyz labor migrant.

Remittances shape the present state of the Kyrgyz economy;the quality of human capital, and its future.

Efficiently functioning social networks abroad play a significant role in a migrant’s decision to work abroad, and his or her choice of destination and job.

That labor has freedom of movement is essential to Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia Customs Union.