Radio Liberty reported on September 23 that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was tight-lipped on the details of the migration deal that his country finalized with Uzbekistan on September 15.
The agreement allows the "necessary immigration of highly talented workers that we need in Germany," Scholz was quoted as saying after talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev.
RFE/RL notes that Germany is one of many Western countries where migration — illegal migration in particular — is a hot-button issue being tapped into by the political right.
But it is reportedly also one of the few areas in which Western countries can, in the short term, honor their pledge to deepen ties with Central Asia — a region whose strategic stock has gone up since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine.
The traditional migration destination for Central Asians leaving job-light economies has been Russia, where millions of nationals from the region reside.
But a rarely easy life for migrants from major labor-senders Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan has reportedly hit new levels of difficulty because of the war, after military recruiters began targeting both naturalized and non-naturalized Central Asians for the front lines.
Since March and the deadly Crocus City Hall attack in which nationals of Tajikistan were implicated, difficult has become impossible for many, thanks to a massive increase in raids on migrants at their workplaces and homes, with more and more Central Asians also being turned back at Russia’s borders.
And that means a very real window of opportunity for the West to court those Central Asian countries, for whom remittances equate to anywhere between 10 percent of gross domestic product (Uzbekistan) to over 40 percent (Tajikistan).
But results so far are modest and are likely to remain so, according to experts, RFE/RL says, noting that in the United Kingdom, where anti-immigration sentiment spilled into riots last month, the Seasonal Workers Scheme attracts thousands from Central Asia every year.
Demand for the scheme is high across the region, a fact that has given rise to scams and predatory behavior on the part of agencies advertising the placements, according to RFE/RL.
But while migrants can often earn two or three times in Britain compared to what they can get in Russia, the overall remittance value of migration between Central Asia and the United Kingdom is still lower than destinations with longer-established migration ties to the region such as South Korea.
In Germany’s case, too, the numbers are small.
A September 15 report on the agreement by the Hamburg-based weekly Die Zeit pointed out that there are currently just 13,700 Uzbeks living in the country.
Meanwhile, “only around 200 Uzbeks are in Germany without a residence permit…less than 0.1 percent of all 225,000 migrants in Germany who are required to leave the country,” Die Zeit reported.
Neither Berlin nor Tashkent has offered insight as to how those numbers will change.
In September 2023, Germany and Kyrgyzstan signed a declaration of intent for a migration agreement, which is expected to occur in the near future.
The official phrasing was almost identical to Scholz’s regarding the sealed deal with Uzbekistan, detailing an aim “to open pathways for skilled workers to Germany and obligate Kyrgyzstan to readmit its nationals who have no right to stay in Germany.”
It is expected that agriculture, home-care nursing, and construction will be the priority sectors that the prescreened Uzbek placements will target.
