The number of Tajik labor migrants heading abroad is dipping, but the amount of money they are sending home is skyrocketing, Eurasianet reports, citing data published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The IOM’s Tajikistan situation report covering the last half of 2024 reportedly shows that as of last September, 618,097 Tajiks citizens had traveled abroad in search of work, roughly 98 percent of them heading to Russia.  During the same timeframe in 2023, the number of Tajik labor migrants stood at 673,285. 

The 8-percent decrease is understandable, but not as severe as one might expect, given the circumstances.  Labor migrants in Russia experienced a sharp uptick in harassment and a tightening of employment rules in the aftermath of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, in which Tajik militants killed over 140 individuals attending a concert in Moscow last March. Six months later, the Tajik Embassy in Moscow issued an advisory urging labor migrants not to travel to Russia “unless absolutely necessary.” 

World Bank figures show that Tajiks living and working abroad generated a “significant increase in remittance inflows” for relatives and friends in Tajikistan.  Labor migrants reportedly sent US$5.8 billion home in 2024, a 27 percent increase over the US$4.6 billion in remittances generated the previous year.  The remittance total for 2024 accounted for a whopping 45 percent of Tajikistan’s annual GDP, the IOM report shows.

Meanwhile, labor migration to Tajikistan experienced an uptick in 2024, although the numbers are miniscule in comparison to outbound guest workers, Eurasianet reports, adding that the government issued 6,500 work permits to foreigners as of December 2024, over two-thirds of whom were Chinese nationals. Another almost 1,000 guest workers combined came from Afghanistan, Iran and India, while Russia accounted for 100 labor migrants.