Labor Migration in the Post-Soviet Space After the Economic Crisis

The recent economic crisis has had a severe impact on the lives of labor migrants and the economies of their home countries, which are reliant on remittances. While labor migrants normally subsist in living and working conditions that violate their basic human rights, they are worsened during times of economic downturn. Labor migrants are statistically the first to become unemployed and are subjected to an increase in ethnic violence directed against them. Yet since remittances are essential to the labor migrants’ home economies and the livelihoods of their families, labor migrants persist in often abhorrent conditions.

Panelists

• Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch
• Richard Ericson, Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at East Carolina University
• Michael Hall, Regional Director for the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Open Society Institute

Ericson presented the current economic situation in Russia, while Denber discussed the findings of a recent Human Rights Watch report on the exploitation of migrant construction workers in Russia. Hall focused on Tajikistan and cover the impact of the economic crisis on the lives of Tajik labor migrants and the Tajik economy.

Anthony Richter, associate director of the Open Society Institute, introduced and moderated the event.

Note: The audio for this event has been edited.