Uzbekistan tops the list of CIS countries, grabbing the biggest share of remittances from migrants working in Russia, says the Newsru.com online news outlet.

      According to the Central Bank of Russia, the total size of money transfers in Jan-Sept 2013 exceeded $15 billion.

      Uzbekistan received some $4.9 billion, followed by Tajikistan, where families got more than $3 billion, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

      The biggest remittances were sent to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, averaging RUR 19,000 per transaction, while Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan saw smaller sums, no more than RUR 10,000).

      According to the Federal Migration Service, there are some 1.112 million Tajik citizens currently working in Russia out of a total of 8 million.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported on the findings of a global survey on migrants’ remittances.

      According to it, Russia ranks second in the number of migrant workers.

      Done by Pew Research based on the data from the United Nations and the World Bank, the study looks at the shifts in patterns of global migration and remittances.

      The list of the destination countries is topped by the US, with 45.8 million, while second place Russia has become a second home for 11 million migrants.

      Surprisingly, the number of migrants in Russia has remained flat since 1990, unlike the US where it doubled.

      In terms of remittances, which is the money they send their families, Russia is far below the world’s leaders like India, with $71 billion, China, with $60 billion, and the Philippines, with 26 billion. The amount of remittances from Russia totals just $6.4 billion.

      According to Pew Research, the “total number of international migrants rose from 154 million in 1990 to 232 million in 2013 – but remained steady as a 3 percent share of the globe’s growing population.”

      The full report is available here.