Central Asian migrants look West

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AFP) — A German teacher stands in front of Uzbek nursing students, rattling off health terms — wheelchair, overweight, retired — they will need to master before setting off for new jobs in Germany.

They are part of a growing number of Central Asians shunning the traditional option of emigrating to Russia in favor of the West.

Facing labor shortages in a host of sectors, several European Union states have struck agreements with the five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan — to help bring in skilled workers, particularly in the care and agriculture industries.

As hostility towards Central Asian migrants grows across Russia, the higher wages on offer in Europe have enticed many to look elsewhere.

“Honestly, the salary interested me first and foremost,” caregiver Shakhnoza Gulmurotova told Agence France-Presse about the option to work in Germany.

With a promised monthly take-home of around $2,500, the 30-year-old could see her income jump sevenfold.

The trend looks like a win for all sides.

Workers get higher salaries, some of which they can send home to support families.

Central Asian countries can lower unemployment and poverty rates, quelling potential unrest among their swelling young populations.

And Europe addresses skills shortages through controlled immigration — vital as birth rates drop.

Germany ‘stresses me out’

Nevertheless, Europe is still a bigger leap — culturally and linguistically — for many in a region long ruled over by Moscow.

“This move to Germany stresses me out a lot,” said paramedic Umidjon Alijonov, 30, who studied in Russia.

“I never thought I would learn German, but now it’s my life,” he said.

He plans to move with his family.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis that followed, Russia had long been the only destination for many. It is still the top individual destination and remittances are an economic lifeline in the poorest parts of the region.

But its appeal has waned, especially since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In May, Moscow said it had sent some 20,000 naturalized Russians originally from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to fight at the front.

Hostility towards Central Asians — long a problem in Russia — has significantly intensified since the 2024 massacre at a concert hall outside Moscow in which 149 people were killed.

Moscow has arrested a group of Tajiks over the attack, tightened its migration policies, upped police raids and pushed anti-migrant rhetoric.

“The police check your documents everywhere,” said Azimdjon Badalov, a Tajik who had worked in Russia for 10 years.

“As a migrant, I couldn’t move around freely,” he told AFP.

In several Russian regions, migrants are forced to install a government app that tracks their location. Many cities have barred non-Russians from a range of jobs, including taxi drivers and couriers.

Badalov, who now works as a seasonal strawberry picker south of London, said he “prefers working in the United Kingdom than in Russia.”

Since 2016, the number of Uzbeks living in Russia has shrunk from around four to six million to fewer than one million, according to officials.