Migration has been down for the last 10-15 years in Kazakhstan

The migration rate has significantly declined in comparison with the previous decades, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing Alikhan Smailov, head of the Statistics Agency as saying at the press-conference on February 15. “Nowadays we often point out a heightened migration and increasing number outbound migrants. But these are a mere 30-40 thousand people that we are talking about. In fact the migration has dwindled compared to the rate we had 10-15 years ago," Smailov said. "We had a migration balance deficit in 1992. This means that there were 225 thousand more outbound emigrants than inbound immigrants. Meanwhile last year the migration balance was positive with 5500 more people moving into the country than out. 38 167 people immigrated into the country in 2011 and 32 759 left it. As a result we had a positive balance of 5408 people.” According to the head of the Agency, at present people mostly more between the post soviet countries, same as in the past years. The goal of the migration is still the same: people return to their historical homeland. “Generally those who move into Kazakhstan are ethnic Kazakhs returning to their historical homeland,” head of Statistics Agency said. According to the Agency, the share of immigrants inbound from post soviet countries made up 81.5% and the share of people outbound to the post soviet countries amounted to 95.1%