Over 13,000 ethnic Kazakhs return home in 2025
A total of 13,202 ethnic Kazakhs returned to their historical homeland and obtained the status of Kandas in 2025. Since 1991, a total of 1,161,200 people have resettled in the country, Qazinform News Agency has learnt from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
This year, 45.6% of kandas who arrived in Kazakhstan came from Uzbekistan, 42.3% are from China, 4.1% are from Turkmenistan, 2.9% are from Mongolia, 2.6% are from Russia, and 2.5% are from other countries.
As of November 1, 2025, 57.6% of ethnic migrants are of working age, 33.9% are underage children, and 8.5% are pensioners. Among the working-age group, 15.2% hold higher education degrees, 28.2% have vocational secondary education, 50.5% have completed secondary education, and 6.1% have no education certificates.
The arriving ethnic Kazakhs have settled in various regions of the country. At the same time, several labor-deficient areas, including the Akmola, Abai, Kostanay, Pavlodar, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan, and North Kazakhstan regions, have been designated for their relocation.
The 2025 quota for kandas resettlement in these regions is set at 2,309 people. As of November 1, 1,942 kandas have already relocated there.
Kandas who move to these designated regions receive state support in the form of a relocation subsidy — a one-time payment of 70 monthly calculation indices (275,200 tenge) per family member — and monthly housing and utility allowances ranging from 15 to 30 MCI (59,000–118,000 tenge) for one year.
Since the beginning of the year, various forms of assistance have been provided to 1,010 kandas, including permanent employment for 313 individuals.
In addition, to improve the effectiveness of voluntary resettlement, institutional measures have been introduced to support employers involved in relocating citizens to northern regions. An economic mobility certificate has been implemented, allowing recipients to buy or build housing or cover part of a mortgage down payment. The certificate provides a one-time, non-repayable grant of up to 50% of the housing cost or up to 4.56 million tenge per family.
Earlier Qazinform News Agency reported, over 11,000 ethnic Kazakhs have returned to the historical homeland since the beginning of 2025.
