Economic and spatial determinants of interregional migration in Kazakhstan

- We analyze interregional migration in Kazakhstan using a quarterly panel for the years 2008-2010 for 16 administrative regions for two ethnic groups: Kazakhs and Russians.
- Wages in the origin do not seem to impact population movements.
- The effect of wages in the destination is stronger for Kazakhs than for Russians.
- Regions with a larger population are more likely to send and likewise more likely to receive migrants.
- The elasticity of migration to distance is about - 1.2 for Kazakhs but is slightly less than unity for Russians. This points at higher migration related costs for ethnic Kazakhs possibly due to stronger family bonds.

In this paper we analyze economic and spatial determinants of interregional migration in Kazakhstan using quarterly panel data on region to region migration in 2008-2010. The main contribution of the paper relates to the ethnic divide in Kazakhstan, which is the home of a big ethnic Russian community, adding to the scarce literature on ethnic differences in migration patterns. Against this background we investigate whether the determinants of interregional mobility depend on ethnicity. In line with traditional economic theory we find that migration is determined by economic factors, first of all wage. As predicted by gravity arguments, mobility is larger between more populated regions and distance has a strong negative impact on migration, indicating high migration-related costs. Most likely caused by stronger family ties and kinship bonds, the deterring effect of distance is higher for ethnic Kazakhs.