Historical Stages in the Development of External Labour Migration From Uzbekistan (1991–2025)

Abstract

The article constructs a five-stage historical periodisation of external labour migration from Uzbekistan during 1991 to 2025. The identified stages encompass spontaneous post-Soviet emergence between 1991 and 2000, Russia-dominated mass migration between 2001 and 2010, institutional formalisation between 2011 and 2016, strategic transformation between 2017 and 2021, and geopolitical reconfiguration between 2022 and 2025. The empirical analysis traces the growth of migrant numbers from approximately 280 thousand in 2000 to a peak of 2.5 million in 2019, accompanied by the decline of the Russian Federation share of total flows from 85 per cent to 57 per cent over the same period. The proposed framework integrates classical migration theories with the institutional and geopolitical dynamics specific to the post-Soviet Central Asian context, contributing to regional migration historiography.