Russia remains the largest labor market for migrants from Central Asian countries, despite a recent decline in the number of workers arriving from some of the region’s main labor-exporting countries, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said.

“Despite some reduction in the number of labor migrants from the main donor countries of foreign labor - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan - Russia remains the largest labor market for them due to its geographical and cultural-linguistic proximity,” Alexander Sternik, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Third Department for CIS Countries, said, according to Ridus.

Elyor Toshtemirov, deputy head of the Migration Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said that around 1.1-1.2 million Uzbek citizens are currently working abroad. More than half of them are in Russia, which remains the key destination for Uzbek migrant workers.

Tajikistan’s Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment Soleha Kholmahmadzoda previously said that more than 30,000 Tajik citizens traveled to Russia for work in 2025 under an organized recruitment program. That figure was 12,000 higher than the previous year.