This report examines the political, economic, and social causes of migration and focuses on the key strategies available to Afghanistan’s non-Pashtun ethnic groups to prevent or reduce migration.

Migration from Afghanistan, particularly among non-Pashtun ethnic groups, is a multidimensional and structural phenomenon. Over recent decades, Afghanistan’s political and economic structures have become deeply intertwined and shaped by prolonged wars, weak state-building processes, and institutional fragility. As a result, political instability, ethnic competition for power, widespread corruption, and foreign interventions have significantly weakened the state's capacity to provide security, regulate the labor market, and develop economic infrastructure.

For some non-Pashtun communities, political marginalization and economic deprivation have transformed migration from a voluntary choice into a “strategy for survival” and a means of securing safety and income. Within this context, migration is not merely a consequence of poverty; rather, it is a structural outcome of a fragile state, institutional inequality, and the absence of sustainable development opportunities.

📌 This report examines the political, economic, and social causes of migration and focuses on the key strategies available to Afghanistan’s non-Pashtun ethnic groups to prevent or reduce migration.