Attachments
INTRODUCTION
The report aims to provide an overview of the migration patterns and mobility in Tajikistan, drawing upon data from the latest available sources until the end of 2023 from national and international datasets on migratory movements concentrating on the most recent migration situation in Tajikistan. This includes migration flow, number of residences permits and remittances, as well as reasons for migration. The report includes the continuing impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on traditional migration corridors in the region, changing labour migration flows, increase of climate change and migration concerns, the growing urbanization process, the social-economic circumstances, and other major events are described as main contributing factors of the human mobility and migratory movements in the given period in the country.
Mobility Tracking Matrix (MTM) is a system based on the IOM's Global Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), and aims to track and monitor displacement and population mobility. MTM collects and analyzes information about mobility and vulnerabilities of displaced and mobile populations. This system allows systematically grasp and disseminate the better context and information on the needs of these populations to key decision-makers.
The MTM is adapted to Tajikistan context from the global DTM methodology during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) and the MTM in Labour Migration Program - Central Asia, funded by SDC (2022). It is designed to regularly and systematically capture, process, and disseminate information to provide a better understanding of the movements and evolving needs of migrants in Tajikistan. MTM initiatives in Tajikistan also co-funded with the EU within the frame of “Displacement Tracking Matrix and Regional Evidence for Migration Analysis and Policy (DTM-REMAP)” since 2023.
The protracted restructuring of migration structures and the transfer of authority from one agency to another caused delay and challenges to regulate migration from and to Tajikistan throughout the years (HRC, 2021). However, since January 2011, the Migration Service of the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment of Population of Tajikistan (MoLMEP) became the sole authority on migration-related issues (ILO, 2021). This improved matters such as record keeping of external migration of Tajik citizens and their returning from foreign countries better supporting the overall migration management progress in the country. Within this, the data provided by the authority considered as the main source of migration data in Tajikistan (HCR, 2021). The current migration law (1999) is the main legal document regarding migration management and the document was amended in March 2018 after receiving recommendations for updating this law from the UN Committee on Migrant Workers (UN CMW) in 2012. In June 2023, a new strategy for the regulation of migration processes was introduced in Tajikistan for the period up to 2040, and the Action plan for 2023-20251 was introduced with the broader approach to migration management and its strategy towards various migration issues. Further documents were also introduced such as the Decree of the President of Tajikistan on attracting foreign labour to Tajikistan and decree of the Government of Tajikistan on the State Employment Assistance Program of Tajikistan for 2023-2027. In 2021, Tajikistan ranked 122nd out of 191 countries surveyed by the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), faring worse than all other former Soviet states and scoring only slightly above its 1990 HDI value. By January 2022, more than 40 per cent of households reported at least one household member working abroad, rising to 50 per cent in June 2022 and declining back to 37 per cent by the end of 2022.