That's the question that Tajikistan is now trying to answer - as Russia's economy boomed through much of the early part of this decade, the Central Asian nation sent more than a million of men there to work as laborers. In return the Tajik economy received an influx of more than $2 billion in remittances (payments sent home by people working abroad) in 2008 alone, about half of their Gross Domestic Product. But now the Russian economy is in a slump, construction projects have been halted and unemployment is on the rise. And those feeling the effects the hardest are the migrant workers.
The effect is rippling through Tajik society. Many families, without remittance payments coming in from family in Russia, now can't send their children to school, and some are even having a hard time putting food on the table. Some Tajik men have returned home, only to find there are few jobs, despite government promises of employment for all (of course many men left Tajikistan in the first place because there were no jobs to be had). For other men still in Russia, going home isn't even an option because they cannot afford the train ticket.
There is also concern that the migrant situation could lead to unrest within Tajikistan (not to mention the neighboring countries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also shipped many men to Russia as migrant laborers, as well), with fear that extremism from Afghanistan could spread throughout Central Asia. Late in May there was a suicide bombing along the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border that Uzbek authorities blamed on Islamic terrorists.
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