Heart and Sole

You don’t have to leave your country to become a migrant. Kazakhstan attracts many thousands of workers from other Central Asian countries, but many also move around this vast, sparsely populated land.

The phenomenon is being seen more these days, as temporary workers in labour-intensive sectors are the first to be laid off due to the pandemic-induced employment crisis and have to change locations to stay in work.

Askarbay and his family moved before COVID, from the south to the north of Kazakhstan. Things were fine for a while, but then he had two strokes which affected movement in one of his arms, and his wife, Victoriya, lost her job as a teacher.

He had to find a way to provide for her, their three children, and his mother in law.  Finally he found a local NGO funded by IOM and asked for help.

“Years ago my mother taught me to sew a sewing machine,” he smiles, “but I never thought that it would be useful for me in later life.”

He chose to study how to be a shoemaker, and he was so good that the teacher suggested they start a business together.

 “At first, when we turned to a local NGO for help, we could not believe that someone could help free of charge, without bureaucracy and paperwork,” Victoriya recalls. “They really helped and gave us a sewing machine and taught my husband a new profession. Now we have a way of making an income.  It's incredible."