Astana, 21 October. From 1 January 2027 new rules on voluntary resettlement take effect in Kazakhstan: participants are entitled to a relocation payment, monthly compensation for rent and utilities and help with buying housing, and a family of four that meets all the conditions can receive up to about 10.35 million tenge.
The rules were approved by order No. 401 of the Minister of Labour and Social Protection of 13 October 2026 and registered with the Ministry of Justice on 14 October. There will be two kinds of resettlement. Interregional — from regions with surplus labour to regions short of workers; the mandatory condition is help with finding a job or starting a business in the new place. Intraregional — from settlements with low economic potential to more promising ones: from villages to single-industry towns and district and regional centres, and from regional centres to mainly agricultural villages, including border districts.
The regions of departure, from which the state supports moving, are listed as Almaty, Zhambyl, Mangystau and Turkestan regions, as well as Astana, Almaty and Shymkent. Kyzylorda Region and Zhetysu Region have been removed from the list of labour-surplus regions. The programme is open to the unemployed, specialists in in-demand professions, heads of peasant and farm households and kandas — ethnic Kazakhs who have returned to their historical homeland. Local authorities must approve lists of receiving settlements and of in-demand specialists every year by 15 December.
Monthly compensation for rent and utilities in cities will be 20 monthly calculation indices (MCI) for a single person, 25 MCI for a family of two to four and 30 MCI for a family of five or more; at the 2026 MCI this is between 86,500 and 129,750 tenge. In villages the payments will be 15 to 21 MCI a month. The maximum compensation is capped at 1,160 MCI — at the 2027 MCI of 4,693 tenge this comes to 5,443,880 tenge. Separate support measures are also envisaged for employers who take on staff from other regions.
Anyone who receives support must live in the region of resettlement for five years: if they leave the regions designated by the government earlier of their own accord, the payments may have to be returned to the budget. Help is given not for moving to any settlement, but only to those on the approved lists.
What it means: The state continues to pay people to move from crowded cities and labour-surplus regions to places short of workers, but from 2027 the money is tied more strictly to a job or one's own business in the new place and to five years of living there. Kyzylorda Region and Zhetysu are no longer regions of departure.
Who benefits: As the programme intends, regions short of workers and the resettlers themselves, who receive payments for moving, rent and housing. The sources do not give the total cost of the programme or the quotas for 2027.
Background: The interregional labour mobility programme is already in place: in 2026 the one-off relocation subsidy is 70 MCI, or 302,750 tenge, per family member, and as of 1 July 3,420 people had received it, while another 3,432 people received compensation for rent and utilities.
List of sources used: Kazinform, Ak Zhaiyk, Qaz365, Exclusive.kz, Arasha.kz, Mybuh.kz, BES.media
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
