Tajik Labour Migrants and their Remittances: Is Tajik Migration Pro-Poor?

• Main Authors: Kumo, Kazuhiro, クモ, カズヒロ, 雲, 和広
• Other Authors: 社会科学の高度統計・実証分析拠点構築 = Research Unit for Statistical and Empirical Analysis in Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University 2011
• Subjects: karelia*; karelian
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10086/19077

A draft of this paper was presented at a regular study meeting of the Institute of Economic Research at Hitotsubashi University on 5 January 2011, at a workshop held at the Karelian Institute, University of Joensuu, Finland on March 8, 2011, This paper represents part of the results of a 2010 research project subsidised by the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Foundation. For the four years since 2006, Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, has led the world in the receipt of foreign remittance as a proportion of GDP. Needless to say, key reasons for this are the low income levels in Tajikistan and the country's special relationship with Russia, which is enjoying rapid economic growth. Yet while interest in the relationship between migration and foreign remittance has existed for a long time, not many studies have looked at this region. This paper used household survey forms from two points in time to profile households in Tajikistan and international labour migration by Tajiks, and examined the relationship between household income levels in Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, and foreign remittance being received from international labour migrants and the likelihood of migrants being supplied. It found no correlation between household income levels and amounts of money received from abroad, which suggests that altruistic models of the relationship between migration and remittance do not apply. Moreover, it also found that households with high incomes are more likely to supply migrants, indicating that international labour migration from Tajikistan may not be conductive to reducing poverty in that country. グローバルCOEプログラム = Global COE Program 30 p.