The Health of Return Migrants in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

External labor migration plays an important part in Kyrgyzstan. Policy makers, mass media, and the academic world have been paying great attention to the topic of labor migration. Most of the research on migration has been mainly focusing on remittances and their economic and social effects. Even though the labor migration is mainly temporary in nature, the issue of return migration and particularly the aftermigration lives of migrants is often neglected. This paper is aimed to study the post-migration health status of migrants with a specific interest in any variations between returned migrants and those who never worked abroad. This research covers the socio-economicnand political aspects that arise as a result of migration. The relevance for this study is highly significant due to the limited literature that covers the post-migration lives or return migration of labor migrants. Based on the results of key findings, following conclusions are drawn: It is hard to set a relationship between migration and health. According to the analysis, the physical condition of returning labor migrants was worse than of those who never migrated. The hypothesis that the sick or unhealthy migrant populations return to their hometown can be supported by their self-evaluated physical health status. In order to keep the sectors of employment that are covered by migrants working, the policy makers should exert more strict regulation on the environment of the workplace, and develop primary health care facilities.