The Impact of International Migration

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequences that followed brought radical political and socio-economic changes to all post-Soviet states. These changes, in turn, had a significant effect on the migration process, which acquired new and unique forms and expressions. With the transition to a market economy, considerable changes have occurred in the livelihoods of the populations concerned. People who had lived under the centrally planned economic system found themselves without sufficient state support and social protection, as they had had before. In the Central Asian State of Kyrgyzstan, this transformation period was accompanied by a severe economic crisis, which was especially dramatic between 1991 and 1995.

In order to interpret the data and to answer the research questions of this study, different theoretical perspectives on migration and livelihoods will be considered. As migration and livelihoods are interdisciplinary fields of research, only the most appropriate theories and approaches from different disciplines will be presented and applied in this work. The theoretical part begins with a consideration of migration theories, which help to explain migration processes ranging from the causes to the consequences of migration and ending with a consideration of the sustainable livelihood approach with reference to the various impacts of migration on livelihoods.

This chapter deals with research methods, which I applied to study the impact of international migration on livelihoods. The study is based on empirical case studies from three selected rural municipalities in the Jalal–Abad Oblast of the Kyrgyz Republic. In order to follow migrants to their destination, a further empirical study was carried out in Moscow. The application of multi-sited field research and the usage of various quantitative and qualitative research methods that will be discussed below contributed to the clear understanding of the research topic and to answer the main research question of this study: “In what way does international migration influence local livelihoods?”

Migration as a process is characterised by its historical and contemporary dimensions. Different changes occur in migration processes over different time frames, and naturally one change begets another or impacts on the process itself. In this chapter I will consider migration as a process within historical and contemporary contexts. The first part of this chapter describes migration processes during Soviet times. Planned and forcible migration during the Soviet era significantly influenced people’s lives and brought important demographic, socio-economic and cultural changes to many parts of the Soviet Union, and particularly Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, the consideration of migration patterns of that time, and related changes, is important in order to understand better the contemporary migration process. The second part of this chapter provides a broad overview of migration processes in Kyrgyzstan after sovereignty. In contrast to Soviet times, contemporary migration and livelihood patterns in Kyrgyzstan and in other post-Soviet countries exhibit completely different characteristics. For instance, internal migration which used to occur between Soviet republics has changed to the international stage, and people have started to sustain their livelihoods under the new economic conditions or conditions of the market economy. In this regard, the second part of the chapter considers new forms and trends in international migration in relation to political and socio-economic transformations after 1991.

This chapter introduces the reader to a research region which is considered as a migrant- sending or source region. The first part of this chapter deals with the socio-economic and migration situation in the Jalal-Abad oblast. Since this study is based on a case study method, and three rural municipalities of the Jalal-Abad oblast were chosen as case study areas, the second part of this chapter introduces the Arstanbap, Kyzyl-Unkur and Kara-Alma rural municipalities. The changing patterns of rural livelihoods and migration preconditions are considered through the example of these three rural case study areas.

Considering migration as a crucial practice within new livelihood strategies, the first part of this chapter deals with reasons for migrating and examines how potential migrants and their households make the decision to relocate, how they implement this plan and what kind of resources they use to travel abroad. Additionally, the role of the migrant network is considered one of the most crucial factors in international migration. The second part of this chapter explores the geographical features of international migration by analysing its spatial and temporal dimensions. The economic activities of migrants are described in the third part of this chapter, wherein important issues such as how they gain access to jobs and in which spheres of the economy they are mostly involved in are considered.

Today migration impacts many aspects of human life, but its economic and social impacts are the most considerable in scale as well as in importance. This chapter deals with those important effects of migration that concern most migrants and their families. The first part of this chapter considers the economic impacts of migration, giving an important place to the study of remittances and spending patterns. It explores the role of remittances in a migrants’ wellbeing and their ability to establish a sustainable livelihood. Social impacts, including possible social risks and challenges, are described in the second part of the chapter. The third part deals with the political impacts of international migration. The legal and citizenship issues and other challenges that migrants face, in addition to transnational practices, are considered in this part.

Since international migration in Kyrgyzstan is mostly temporary in character, accordingly, return migration is a natural process or “the closing phase of temporary migration” (Guarnizo 1997: 289). However, temporary migration does not always end with a permanent return to the home. Due to various reasons and circumstances, it can be transformed into permanent, circular or transnational migration. Therefore, the ambiguous geographies of return migration, particularly its temporal and spatial dimensions, are considered in the first part of this chapter. The second part deals with reasons for return and the experiences of return migrants, as well as the fulfilled or, as the case may be, unfulfilled expectations from their migration. In the last part of the chapter, the employment and livelihood patterns of returnees are considered, as are the intentions of returnees to re-migrate.

Migration processes in Kyrgyzstan have played an important role in people’s livelihoods since they were activated in the 1990s. Several economic crises of the transformation period and their resulting rising unemployment and poverty rates, together with a lack of socio-economic securities, cause difficulties in maintaining sustainable livelihoods for many households, especially in rural areas where livelihood opportunities are often limited. Today labour migration is a main livelihood strategy, and migrants’ remittances are one of the main sources of income for many people in Kyrgyzstan.