A US visa . Image from usembassy.gov
During the first quarter of 2020, the USA has fallen from the list of the top five destinations for Uzbek emigrants, according to new data from the State Committee on Statistics of Uzbekistan (in Russian). In previous years, the USA has consistently been one of the most popular countries in the world for Uzbek citizens to take up permanent residence in.
In the period in question, a total of 1,906 Uzbek citizens left the country to take up permanent residence elsewhere. The majority of them – 1,234 people or almost 65% of the total – opted for Kazakhstan. In second place came Russia with 29.2%. The other three top destinations were Kyrgyzstan, Israel and Tajikistan. Israel is now the only far-off state to consistently figure in the top five since 2018.
According to the Committee’s statistics, in 2019, 13,246 foreign citizens moved to Uzbekistan from abroad, a 30% reduction on 2018. Most emigrants (57.5%) moved to Kazakhstan. Second came Russia (37.7%) and third USA (0.8%). In 2018, Russia occupied the top spot (47.2%), Kazakhstan was second (47.1%) and USA third (1.2%).
In January-March of this year, 490 people took up permanent residence in Uzbekistan. The highest number of them came from Kazakhstan (34.1%), followed by Tajikistan (28.6%) and Russia (19.6%). Also in the top five were Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. A similar pattern has been observed in previous years.
