On September 1, 2023, 16,026 ethnic Kazakhs returned to their historical homeland and received the status of kandas, El.kz reports, citing the press service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Since 1991, 1,123,200 Kazakhs have returned to Kazakhstan.
Since the beginning of this year, more than half of the returned ethnic Kazakhs, or kandas (53.6%), came from Uzbekistan, 19.6% from China, 10.9% from Mongolia, 7.8% from Russia, 5.9% from Turkmenistan, and 2.2% from other countries.
As of September 1 of this year, 61.4% of returnees are of working age, 30% are under working age, and 8.5% are pensioners. Among the Kandas of working age, 15.6 per cent have higher education, 34.4 per cent have specialized secondary education, and 41.2 per cent have general secondary education.
The returned Kazakhs were reside to different regions of the country. For their resettlement, such labor-deficient regions as Akmola, Abai, Kostanay, Pavlodar, East and North Kazakhstan were identified.
The quota for the admission of kandas for 2023 is 1,925 people, and as of September 1, 2023, 1,773 kandas have already been resettled.
Those who settle in these areas are provided with state subsidies for relocation, as well as monthly payments for rent and utilities. Since the beginning of the year, support has been provided to 918 kandas: 493 of them are employed, 918 received one-time subsidies, and 383 received housing subsidies.
Measures were also taken to support employers involved in the resettlement of citizens to the northern regions, and a certificate of economic mobility was introduced to finance the purchase or construction of housing.
This year, a new procedure was introduced for assigning the status of kandas on the principle of "one window" through the embassies of Kazakhstan. This allows ethnic Kazakhs to obtain kandas status without entering the country. To date, 2,037 applications (681 families) have been submitted under this procedure.