타지키스탄의 노동이주와 송금: 글로벌 금융위기의 영향

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the influence of global financial crisis on pattern and scale of labor migration and remittances of Tajikistan. In late 2008, Tajikistan’s external dependence made the country vulnerable when the global financial crisis reached the critical stage. The crisis had quickly dispersed to Russia, where an abrupt plunge of oil price made to push the country into a severe recession throughout 2009. Tajikistan’s economic dependence on remittances from Russia was expected to lead to an immediate ‘import’ of the crisis. At the same time, Tajikistan suffered from falls in world market prices of major export commodities (aluminium and cotton) thus adding to economic pressure in the domestic labour market. In this paper we have found that the global financial crisis had increased migration in Tajikistan, a highly remittances dependent country. The decline in the value of remittances coincides with the domestic economic decline in Tajikistan, so that households further expand the established migration network to cope with the domestic economic crisis. Despite the global financial crisis, remittances remained a major source of finance for many households who have to bear most of the risk of Tajikistan’s external dependence. Another remarkable change appeared during the economic crisis was the increasing ratios of Tajikistan’s migrants moving towards Russia and particularly the migrants’ deepening concentration upon Moscow.