Over 1mln ethnic Kazakhs return to motherland since 1991
9,586 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to the historical homeland and obtained the status of Kandas since the year beginning, Kazinform News Agency reports citing the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.
The majority of the ethnic immigrants or 45.7% arrived from Uzbekistan. 41.8% came from China. 4.6% are from Turkmenistan, 2.7 % are from Mongolia, 2.6% are from Russia and 1.3% came from other countries, an official statement reads.
As of December 1, 2025, the share of ethnic immigrants of employable age made 58.7%. 32.3% are underage children and 9% are pensioners. Of them, 15.4% have higher education diplomas, 29.7% are the graduates of vocational education institutions, 52.3% are school graduates, and 2.6% have no education certificates.
Most of them were settled in Akmola, Abai, Kostanay, Pavlodar, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan and North Kazakhstan regions.
Those settling in the abovementioned areas enjoy the following benefits: Lump-sum travel costs to the amount of 70MCI (monthly calculation indices) per each family member (275,200 tenge) and monthly housing rent and utility allowance for the period of 12 months, amounting from 15 to 30 MCI (from 59,000 to 118,000 tenge), the Ministry adds
Since the year beginning, 237 Kandas have been provided with permanent jobs.
A total of 1,157,600 ethnic Kazakhs has returned to Kazakhstan since 1991.
Earlier it was reported that 8,051 ethnic Kazakhs returned to their historical homeland as of August 1, 2025