About 6 million Kazakhs live abroad, said Ilyas Ispanov, acting chair of the Migration Committee of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, QazMonitor reports.
Ispanov spoke at a press conference on Tuesday to introduce the concept of Kazakhstan’s new migration policy.
The policy will focus on three major issues: stimulation of the inflow of qualified personnel to the country, protection of rights of Kazakhs working abroad, and elimination of demographic imbalance between regions of the country.
The speech also outlined actions to utilize the potential of ethnic Kazakhs living outside of Kazakhstan, through a series of programs, such as the creation of special visas, to encourage them to return.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection does not have accurate data on the number of ethnic Kazakhs living abroad, according to him, and only gave an approximation.
