ASTANA (TCA) — In the first eight months of 2016, 12,963 citizens from Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states arrived in Kazakhstan with employment purpose. The figure includes 9,388 people from Russia, 1,496 from Kyrgyzstan, 394 from Belarus, and 1,685 from Armenia, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development Svetlana Zhakupova said at the third meeting of the Almaty Process on International Migration and Refugee Protection in Astana on September 20, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
The meeting discussed issues of population mobility, the implementation of migrants’ rights and refugees, and prospects for regional cooperation in this field.
Zhakupova said that due to the economic crisis, the population mobility in the Central Asian region will only increase.
Thus, the largest number of migrants to Kazakhstan were people from China (11,641 persons), Turkey (3,558), Uzbekistan (3,285), Great Britain (1,505), and India (1,334).
During the meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Labour, Social Protection and Migration of the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Protection, Aslan Karzhaubayev, said that amendments to the Kazakh migration law would not increase the flow of foreign labor force in Kazakhstan.
The amendments will come into force from January 1, 2017.
“Certain conditions have been created to attract foreign workers. Currently, there is a fee for each employee,” said Karzhaubayev.
The fee paid for each foreign employee will be differentiated depending on the industry. For example, the fee for a foreign worker will be lower in the agricultural sector of Kazakhstan and more in the oil and gas sector.
According to Karzhaubayev, the current immigration quota system will remain.
