A comprehensive conference on migration opened in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, on Tuesday, revealing a negative migration balance for Central Asia's largest state

A comprehensive conference on migration opened in the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, on Tuesday, revealing a negative migration balance for Central Asia's largest state. "While most events have focused only on migration to and from Kazakhstan, this conference will show more aspects of migration," Elvira Pak, head of the office for the Fredrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES) Foundation in Almaty, which organized the event, told IRIN. In doing so, participants and the general public would learn to put individual migration aspects into a broader context, she said. That approach should prove useful in a country like Kazakhstan, providing the government and general public a stronger consciousness of migration issues, and how best to facilitate cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organisations. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, more people emigrated from Kazakhstan than immigrated to, leaving a negative migration balance of just over 2 million people - a serious issue for a country slightly smaller than India, but with a population of just 15 million. And while Kazakhstan, given strong economic indicators, has long been a destination country or transit point for migrants from neighbouring countries in the region, many Kazakhs have opted to leave instead. Organised by the FES, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Beijing-based Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), the conference included some 40 participants, including speakers from Kazakhstan, Germany, Switzerland, Uzbekistan, the United States and Russia.