Main area: Migration
Theme: Labour mobility
Assessment: Partially ODA-eligible
Provider country: Switzerland
Recipient country: Central Asia & the Russian Federation
Implementing agency: Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs; International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
Budget (CHF million): 7
Year(s): 2021-25
Purpose code: 15190
Case number: Migration / 20
Facilitating safe and skilled migration on the Central Asia ‑ Russian Federation / Kazakhstan corridor
Mobility between Central Asia towards the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan is one of the largest and most important labour migration corridors in the world. For the Central Asia countries of origin, labour migration is crucial for poverty reduction and livelihood strategy. Labour mobility in the region also plays a key role for countries of destination, e.g. for the Russian Federation where Central Asian migrants fill labour market gaps. Given free labour mobility among Eurasian Economic Union Member States, the vast majority of migration occurs in an unstructured manner. This entails challenges for countries of both origin and destination, and for prospective migrants as well as for employers: a lack of skills matching and a resulting low productivity of employees, little or no investments in the upskilling of migrants, exploitative practices due to informality, and enhanced risks of the migrants’ enrolment by extremist groups. These can in turn limit the positive development impact of remittances on poverty reduction and transfer of skills to the countries of origin.
The objective of this programme is to enhance the governance of labour mobility in the corridor for the benefit of Central Asian migrant workers and their families, as well as for countries of origin more broadly (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). Concrete activities include:
Promoting better access to skills and vocational training and recruitment agencies in countries of origin; improving services to respond to labour market needs in the countries of destination (Russian Federation and Kazakhstan) and to the needs and priorities of prospective migrant workers;
Providing pre-departure orientation and information for prospective migrant workers;
Engaging with the private sector of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan on recruitment practices and managed ethical labour migration programmes in Central Asia;
Engaging in coordination mechanisms and dialogue platforms at the regional and national levels to inform discussions and lead to the improvement of relevant labour normative frameworks and policies;
Working with banks and money transfer operators to develop and promote financial products tailored to the needs of migrants and their family.
This programme results in improved job opportunities in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, enhancing and upholding labour rights for Central Asia workers, leveraging workers’ migration experience (including skills and remittances) and improve financial inclusion as well as livelihoods (poverty reduction).
This programme is deemed partially ODA-eligible. Activities fostering labour mobility from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to an ODA-eligible country (Kazakhstan) are eligible. See Criterion 7. Regarding labour mobility to the Russian Federation, a non ODA-eligible country, activities do not qualify as ODA given the programme’s focus on filling labour market gaps in the Russian Federation and the support to the integration of migrants (the promotion of permanent integration of migrants into the economy and society of non-ODA eligible host countries is not ODA-eligible).
This work was approved and declassified by the Development Assistance Committee’s Working Party on Development Finance Statistics.
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