Over 18,000 ethnic Kazakhs return to Kazakhstan since early 2024

18,035 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to the historical homeland and obtained the status of kandas since the year beginning, Kazinform News Agency reports.

 According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the majority of the ethnic immigrants or 45.4% arrived from China. 38.9% came from Uzbekistan. 6% are from Mongolia, 5.8% are from Turkmenistan, 2.7% are from Russia and 1.3% came from other countries, an official statement reads.

As of December 1, 2024, the share of ethnic immigrants of employable age made 57.1%. 33.4% are underage children and 9.5% are pensioners. Of them, 17.5% have higher education diplomas, 25% are the graduates of vocational education institutions, 54.7% are school graduates, and 2.8% have no education certificates.

Most of them were in Akmola, Abai, Kostanay, Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan and North Kazakhstan regions.

Those settling in the abovementioned areas enjoy the following benefits:

Lump-sum travel costs to the amount of 70MCI (monthly calculation indices) per each family member (258,400 tenge) and monthly housing rent and utility allowance for the period of 12 months, amounting from 15 to 30 MCI depending on the number of family members (from 55,300 to 110,700 tenge), the Ministry adds.

A total of 1,146,400 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to Kazakhstan since 1991.

On November 18, 2024, ethnic Kazakhs from the Southeast and East Asia gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Quryltay-2024. The event became an important platform for discussing the key issues of cultural and economic interaction within the Kazakh diaspora.