IOM announces new programme on labour migrant remittances

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will strengthen the role that remittances play in rural communities in the southern Tajik province of Khatlon, possibly later replicating the effort in other parts of the country. "It is important to give incentives to labour migrants to invest their money in the local economy in order to help their families become sustainable," Frederic Chenais, IOM chief of mission for Tajikistan, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, describing the pilot project to be launched later this month. Many Tajik families live on from remittances sent by members of their families working abroad, Chenais explained, noting, however, that such funds were largely spent on subsistence and rarely invested in the local economy. Addressing the issue, the long-term development of the local economy should provide some alternative to labour migration for the population, he maintained. An estimated 620,000 Tajik seasonal labour migrants travel abroad each year in search of work, primarily to Russia, but also to neighbouring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, according to a recent IOM report, making migration a key issue for this impoverished nation of 6.5 million. While in 2002 labour migrants sent remittances totalling US $80 million through Tajik commercial banks, the combined value of money and goods flowing into the country that year was between $200 million and $230 million, equal to the former Soviet republic's annual budget. Building on a community development programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the IOM plan centres on helping migrant households, local communities and partners in civil society to capitalise on and promote the investment of migrant remittances for the development of viable livelihoods for migrant families affected by emigration. In coordination with local development committees, the IOM will also provide participatory financing facilities for community initiatives and telecommunications infrastructure, as well as counselling services for potential labour migrants and their families. As part of the project, IOM also plans to organise the first conference on remittance-based development in Tajikistan, as well as organise study tours for local NGOs to the Philippines, a major migrant-origin country, helping them to develop new ways of using remittances in development strategies. According to some estimates, upwards of $7.5 billion in annual remittances are sent back to the Philippines each year, providing a major lifeline to the indebted country's economy. "Our aim is not to replicate the Philippines system, but to take some ideas that could be applied to Tajikistan," Chenais emphasised. "We do not think that labour migration is a long-term strategy for the development of Tajikistan," the IOM official concluded. "But this phenomenon exists, and we should try to make its impact important to the development of the country."