Enhancing cooperation among the Prague Process states

China's "Belt and Road" Initiative and Its Impact on Migration Flows and Policies in Central Asia

1 April 2019

Reports

The report focuses on analysis of China's “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI) and more specifically on the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) project, representing the component aiming to build land transport corridors from China through Central Asia (CA) to Europe – and its impact on migration flows and policies in the CA region. The report analyzes the importance of SREB for the land-locked countries in the region, identifies the main migration trends that have developed in the context of the movement of capital, goods, services, and labor force from China; analyzes individual types of migrations by countries. Despite the increasing mobility in the region and the importance of regulating migration, the regional cooperation, including the harmonization of policies and information exchange, is not well established. Systematic research and forecast of the migration processes provoked by SREB/BRI are unavailable.

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Authors

Yelena Sadovskaya, international consultant on migration and migration policy in Kazakhstan and Central Asia (Almaty), expert of the CIS Migration Research Council at the Center for Migration Studies of the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow). This publication was produced in the framework of the ‘Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action’ initiative, a component of the Mobility Partnership Facility II project, with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and the 'Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action’ initiative, and can in no way represent the views of the European Union.