As Russia loses its luster, Tajik laborers head to Turkey
DUSHANBE (TCA) — Turkey has now become an attractive destination for labor migrants from Central Asia countries — including Tajikistan — instead of Russia. We are republishing the following article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet: As you turn the corner from the stairs into the seventh floor corridor at Istanbul’s Hotel Malkoc, the strains of Persian-language pop music can sometimes be heard filtering through one of the doors. When Eurasianet visited recently, that was a clue that a long-time guest at the hotel might be from Tajikistan. Tahmina Hotamova is among the growing crowd of Tajiks spurning Russia as a place for work in favor of Turkey. Russia is a land of demoralizing hard work, where migration laws have been tightened and police routinely harass foreign laborers for bribes. Thousands of Tajiks are deported from there every year and banned from returning. In Turkey, authorities adopt a more laissez-faire approach. Hotamova moved to Istanbul three years ago. She lives at the Malkoc because it is cheap – the broken lift helps ensure that – and in the heart of the bustling commercial district of Laleli. Her room is spartan and small. There is little space for Hotamova to keep all her possessions. The dressing table is half filled with cosmetics and perfumes. From the late 1990s until 2015, Hotamova lived in Dushanbe dealing in jewelry. “Trading has been my life since childhood. I used to work with my mother, then I started my own business. Once I gained confidence, I took out a $100,000 loan from the bank,” she said. With that money, she bought gems at $32 a gram. And then calamity struck. Her mother became gravely ill and died a month later. “I couldn’t work. I gave my gold to others to sell. And they took advantage and abandoned me. One left for Russia, another hid from me. And on top of that, the [2015 financial] crisis hit. Banks demanded their money back, but I had nothing to give back,” she said. The bank said it would have to confiscate the home where Hotamova lived with her seven children. She was forced to sell her gems at $26 per gram, so she could at least repay some of the money and negotiate an extension on her loan agreement. After that, she moved to Turkey, where she intends to stay at least until her debts are cleared. “I am doing here what I was doing before – I am selling gold in a shop. And if they put in orders in Tajikistan for gold, in bulk or for private use, I send it,” Hotamova said. Another sideline for Hotamova is helping the Tajik shuttle traders who make money carrying packages of wares for sale back home. The more clothes they can stuff into their dense, taped bundles, the more money they earn. As an experienced hand, Hotamova is especially skilled at the art of wrapping packages and does so regularly for a fee. “There is a flight...
