Uzbekistan new indd

convince me that for a girl from Uzbekistan it is very 
important to get married and give birth to a child. If 
I left the country, the chances of me getting married 
would decrease.” Similarly, another woman explained: 
“Some of my relatives were telling my parents: “How 
come? You went crazy... How can you allow your un-
19 Ibid., p.15.
20 In 2013, Brücker, Capuano, and Marfouk constructed a dataset of international emigration by origin, gender and education level for the years 
1980–2010. The data was compiled through harmonizing national censuses and population registers statistics from 20 OECD receiving countries. 
Pre-1991 data for Uzbekistan was derived from the estimation of the immigrant stock from each origin by multiplying the total migration stock 
of the Soviet Republic by the gender and skill-specific share of the independent country population over the total Soviet country migration stock. 
The database covers only adults over 25 to exclude students.
21 Nejad and Young, “Female Brain Drains and Women’s Rights Gaps.” 
22 E. Fayzullaeva, “Labor Migration in Central Asia: Gender Challenges,” in L. Racioppi and K. O. See, Gender Politics in Post-communist Eurasia 
(East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2009), 237–61; M. Tlostanova, Gender Epistemologies and Eurasian Borderlands (NY: Palgrave 
Macmillan, 2010).
23 A. Cieslik, “Transnational Mobility and Family-Building Decisions: A Case Study of Skilled Polish Migrant Women in the UK,” in Oso and Ribas-
Mateos, eds., The International Handbook on Gender, Migration and Transnationalism, 453–68.
Figure 1. Annual Average Growth Rate of Total/Skilled Stock of Emigrants. Data by Region (1990-2000)
Cen
tra
l A
sia
W
es
ter
n A
fric
a
So
ut
her A
sia
So
ut
her A
fric
a
Cen
tra
l A
m
er
ica
M
idd
le A
fric
a
Ea
ster
n E
ur
op
e
So
ut
h A
m
er
ica
N
or
th
er
n A
fric
a
So
ut
h-E
as
t. A
sia
Ea
ster
n A
sia
Ea
ster
n A
fric
a
Au
str + N
ew Z
ela.
W
es
ter
n A
sia
Ca
rri
bea
n
O
th
er
s O
ce
ani
a
So
ut
her
n E
ur
op
e
N
or
th
er
n E
ur
op
e
N
or
th A
m
er
ica
W
es
ter
n E
ur
op
a
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
Women total emig.
Women skilled emig.
Men skilled emig.
Source: Adapted from Docquier et al.
19
 

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Emigration of “Crème de la Crème “ in Uzbekistan. A Gender Perspective
55
married daughter to go somewhere abroad to study?” 
“If she goes abroad’ she may fall in love, she may nev-
er return, when she comes back to Uzbekistan, it will 
be difficult to arrange her marriage because a groom’s 
family would not want a bride who is much more edu-
cated than their son.” Even married women were sub-
ject to such opprobrium: “There were too many ac-
cusing remarks when I was leaving... According to our 
traditional cultural belief system, a daughter does not 
abandon her mother and a wife does not abandon her 
husband; it was against the flow. My mother in law is 
very traditional they simply do not understand...And I 
know what people are saying about me in Uzbekistan.”
In sum, there are strong cultural pressures on 
women in Uzbek society to stay put. For many highly 
educated women the decision to emigrate is moti-
vated by a desire to escape those conservative social 
norms. These norms dictate that women have chil-
dren soon after marriage and that the dominance of 
husbands in a household is a given.
25
 
In addition, in Uzbekistan, like in many oth-
er post-Soviet Central Asian states, we also see a 
return to very traditional, and conservative views 
with regard to the roles of men and women in so-
ciety. One female participant of the study explained: 
“Life in Uzbekistan is satisfactory for men, because 
the whole society is created for men... For many men, 
here I should say traditional Uzbek men, it is difficult 
to accept knowledgeable women or independent wom-
en. Such a woman can be an intimidating factor for a 
man. The space for women is restrictive and that’s why 
women leave the country.”
Another woman told us: “In life there are always 
gender dynamics. Even in more liberal thinking groups 
life is constrained; a woman can’t do this and that 
because people will think this and that...people were 
asking how my husband was reacting to my career de-
velopment...So my husband became a frame of refer-
ence, they were nurturing a sense of guilt: But it is not 
a choice of either career or family−my children never 
suffered. I think they win when they see both parents 
working. I do not see that they suffer.”
These traditional and unequal cultural gender 
norms also translate into unequal economic gender 
norms. Indeed, another major reason why highly 
qualified women decide to emigrate is the lack of 
professional opportunities. The literature shows that 
developing countries, including countries with high-
er levels of gender inequalities, are more affected by 
highly skilled female emigration. Such countries have 
fewer professional opportunities for educated wom-
en.
26
 Studies also show that countries with high fer-
tility rates, restricted access to education for women, 
and strong labor market bias towards women face 
higher rates of female highly skilled emigration.
27
 
Many Uzbek female participants of the study are 
convinced that a woman can succeed in Uzbekistan 
professionally, but they also agree that she faces many 
24 H. Brücker, S. Capuano, and A. Marfouk, “Education, Gender and International Migration: Insights from a Panel-Dataset 1980–2010,” mimeo, 
IAB, Nuremberg, 2013.
25 Ibid.
26 Dumont, Martin, and Spielvogel, “Women on the Move.” 
27 Bang and Mitra, “Gender bias and the female brain drain.” 
Figure 2. Emigration of Highly-Skilled Labor as a Percentage of Total Emigration Stock for Uzbekistan
 
 
0.00%
1.00%
2.00%
3.00%
4.00%
5.00%
6.00%