As of July 1, 2022, 7,415 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to their historical homeland and were granted the status Kandas. In total, around 1,095,300 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to the republic since 1991, QazMonitor reports referring to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
More than half of the Kandas - around 70.2% - who have arrived in Kazakhstan since the beginning of this year are from Uzbekistan, 10.4 % from China, 7.4% from Turkmenistan, 3.2% from Mongolia, and 8.8% from other countries.
These ethnic Kazakhs mostly settled in Almaty (31.6%), Mangystau (18.3%), Turkestan (9.8%), and Zhambyl (6.3%) regions, as well as in the cities of Almaty (5.7%), Nur-Sultan (7.1%) and Shymkent (8.1%).
As of July 1 of 2022, the number of ethnic migrants of working age makes up 62% of Kandas, people below working age make up 24.1%, and 13.9% are pensioners.
In terms of education, 11.4% of Kandas who arrived this year have higher education, 40.3% have specialized secondary education, 47% have general secondary education and 1.6% have no education.
Kandas refers to an ethnic Kazakh, who had permanent residence beyond the borders of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the time of acquisition of its sovereignty, migrating to the Republic of Kazakhstan to gain permanent residence. His or her children were born and have permanent residence beyond the boundaries of the Republic of Kazakhstan after the acquisition of its sovereignty.