ABSTRACT
Why do people choose to leave their homeland and migrate to another country? Although there is a myriad of reasons for migration in general, the traditional “push” and “pull” model articulated by proponents of the macro theory of neoclassical economics explains a large share of economic labor migration. Economic deprivation, high fertility, and unemployment comprise the main “push” factors for migration as demonstrated by Aida’s story above (Smith 1997). “Pull” factors argued to be fueling migration include: family reunification, higher wages, and increased demand for labor in industrialized countries (Smith 1997). As will be discussed later, higher wages in the United States are certainly an incentive for labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan. As a government official in Kyrgyzstan noted, “As long as the wage differentials exist and are significant, labor migration won’t stop” (Sarygulov 2005). Based on an in-depth case study of Kyrgyzstan, this chapter provides an overview of migrants’ motivations for migration, preconditions for international movement of labor, the institutions that participate in the process of migration, and the intermediaries that make irregular migration possible. The discussion is largely based on interviews with 33 migrants from Kyrgyzstan; I also rely on accounts of migrants from other Central Asian states and Georgia to further substantiate that the case of Kyrgyzstan represents a larger trend of migration from the FSU. For comparative purposes, it is key that these countries have a shared Soviet history that involved being interdependent republics linked by a federal system of government, and have all undergone a similar transition from a command to a market economy after the disintegration of the Soviet regime. As a result, the preconditions and “push” and “pull” factors for migration can be deemed comparable across this region.
