Abstract: This article examines the emerging migration corridor between Uzbekistan and Sweden based on interviews, focus groups, and data from a survey conducted in both countries in 2024. Although small in scale, this corridor is analytically significant for understanding the diversification of Uzbek migration beyond Russia and Turkey. Findings show that demographic pressures, limited employment, and environmental stressors in Uzbekistan drive out- migration, while Sweden attracts migrants with higher wages, safer working conditions, and a reputation for fairness. Yet, restrictive asylum and work permit regimes, combined with tightened identity systems, channel many into irregularity. In this context, kinship ties, brokers, and digital platforms such as Telegram function as critical infrastructures of survival, enabling migrants to access jobs and housing but also exposing them to exploitation. The study highlights the contradictions of contemporary migration governance: between aspiration and exclusion and between restrictive regulation and persistent migrant resilience.
Eraliev et al. (Tue,) studied this question.