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Global Economic Crisis Hits Hard for Kyrgyzstan Migrants
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Moscow, Russia, August 2009-Aida Elbeidyeva is one of many from Kyrgyzstan working abroad and sending money home. But Elbeidyeva, like many migrants, has seen her income drop as the global economic slowdown has setback both families and broader social progress. Elbeidyeya moved with her husband from near Bishkek to Mosow in search of better opportunities. In Moscow, she found work as a cleaning lady while her husband worked as a welder at a factory. Together they earned enough to send money home to their two children, and have enough left over to begin construction on a home in Kyrgyzstan. When the global economic crisis hit Russia, migrants were among the first to lose their jobs. Elbeidyeva’s husband lost his job and was unemployed for 10 months. To save money, Elbeidyeva and her husband share one small room with three other people. “This way we survived,” she says. Since, her husband has found some work in construction at a business center near Moscow and they have decided to stay in Russia rather than return to face tough economic circumstances in Kyrgyzstan. Due to the economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund predicts economic growth in Kyrgyzstan to halt this year and not resume until 2010. The economic slowdown in Kyrgyzstan has also been made worse by a decline in money sent home (know as remittances) by those working outside of the country. As a result, families and international programmes to help improve people’s lives have been affected. “Remittances, which have traditionally provided a cushion for family incomes [in the region] have already fallen sharply,” said Ben Slay, senior regional economist for the United Nations Development Programme. “The crisis threatens to reverse the steady gains made by most countries since the 1990s and to undermine the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals.” An initiative to reduce global poverty by 2015, the Millenium Development Goals include such sectors as poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases. Several initiatives including increasing primary education, tuberculosis reduction and reducing infant mortality are now in danger of making minimal or no progress by 2015. For Aida Elbeidyeva, the global crisis economic crisis has hit home more immediately. “I miss my children,” she says of her school-age children in Kyrgyzstan. “Maybe next spring I can return home.” To read more about the regional impact of the global economic crisis read the latest issue of Development and Transition. To learn more about UNDP's response to the global economic crisis visit, http://www.undp.org/economic_crisis/index.shtml. |
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