3
Policy Options to Address Challenges throughout the Migration Life Cycle
STRENGTHENING MIGRATION SYSTEMS Migration systems in the Kyrgyz Republic are still maturing compared to the relevance of the migration phenomenon in the country. Despite the large outflows of Kyrgyz migrants, its role in absorbing part of the “youth bulge” that cannot be accommodated by local labor markets and the vital importance of remittances to the country’s macroeconomic stability, and households’ livelihoods, there has been a lack of coherent, long-term migration policy in the country beyond the role of managing remittances. The State Migration Services, under the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Migration, leads intergovernmental cooperation in the area of labor migration. The State Migration Services only has a central office in Bishkek and a small branch in Osh, while the majority of prospective migrants and returnees reside in rural areas (for example, Batken, Jalal-Abad, and Osh provinces). The physical distance to the main beneficiaries hinders their ability to access offered services. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Kyrgyz Republic also supports migrants through a network of local communities, authorities, and NGOs. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to strengthen institutions, frameworks, and data collection to enhance safe legal migration from the Kyrgyz Republic. The existing migration management in the Kyrgyz Republic is still lacking a centralized data system and intersectoral collaboration throughout the migration cycle—from migration plans and preparations, to support and protection during the migration experience, to the reintegration of return migrants. Migration policy has to be informed by relevant and updated data, not just statistics of border crossings for security purposes and remittances data, in order to elaborate relevant and effective mechanisms to support migrants and their families (Kuznetsova et al. 2020). Legal frameworks have yet to be developed and implemented to put at the forefront of the migration agenda a rights-based approach to protect migrants and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the limitations of the current migration system in protecting migrants from large negative shocks. In the absence of a holistic migration framework with predictable policies, programs to support migrants coping with the COVID-19 crisis have been fragmented and of limited scope. 51
