And the people who are left are the ones who cannot leave. This is a pretty common pattern: there's a portion of the population that is mobile and can freely m

And the people who are left are the ones who cannot leave. This is a pretty common pattern: there's a portion of the population that is mobile and can freely move around, and the rest of the population is stuck in place for one reason or another. When Venezuela went through its instability a couple years ago, about 20-30% of the population left [0]. Syria had 30-40% leave [1]. Ukraine had about 15% leave the country, but more were displaced from the warzone as internal refugees. So when you say that "about one-quarter of Tajikistan's entire population" went to Russia for work, that suggests that economic conditions are at the same general class as 2018 Venezuela or 2012 Syria, where everybody who easily can move has moved. The people that are left really do have nowhere else to go. [0]: https://www.iom.int/venezuelan-refugee-and-migrant-crisis https://www.iom.int/venezuelan-refugee-and-migrant-crisis [1]: https://www.unrefugees.org/news/syria-refugee-crisis-explained/ https://www.unrefugees.org/news/syria-refugee-crisis-explain...