Tajik labour migrants and their remittances: is Tajik migration pro-poor?

During the four years since 2006 Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, has led the world in the receipt of foreign remittances as a proportion of GDP. Needless to say, the key reasons for this are the low income levels in Tajikistan and the country's special relationship with Russia, which has been enjoying rapid economic growth. Yet while interest in the relationship between migration and foreign remittances has existed for a long time, not many studies have looked at this region. This article uses household survey forms from two points in time to profile households in Tajikistan and international labour migration by Tajiks, and examines the relationship between household income levels in Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, and foreign remittances received from international labour migrants and the likelihood of migrants being supplied. It finds no correlation between household income levels and amounts of money received from abroad, which suggests that altruistic models of the relationship between migration and remittances do not apply. Moreover, it also finds that households with high incomes are more likely to supply migrants, indicating that international labour migration from Tajikistan may not be pro-poor.