Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Labor Migration and Migration Policy in Central Asian Countries

The research aims to determine the impact that the global COVID-19 pandemic had on labor migrants and the migration policy in Central Asian countries. During the research, the authors use statistical and sociological methods. Thus, the authors determine the number of arrivals and departures for a particular period, the composition of migrants, and the migration direction. The restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated many issues of migration from Central Asia and the situation of migrants in Russia. If the impact of COVID-19 restrictions continues and the income of migrants continues to decrease, migration participants will be forced to take emergency measures by actively returning to their homeland. Under these conditions, socio-economic tension in the donor countries may grow. The research establishes that the existing sanitary and epidemiological restrictions could contribute to the transformation of migration processes in the countries of Central Asia, including the reorientation of labor migrant flows to new directions and the strengthening of the tendency to receive the right to obtain a Russian passport. The authors propose several practical recommendations to reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on the migration processes in Central Asia. As the research shows, creating and developing new jobs in Central Asian countries is an issue of prime necessity, as is a high dependence of the economy on remittances from migrant workers.