city akimats prefer to work with their own statistics rather than with official figures jobseekers moving to almaty for example often encounter difficulty finding housing and work legally so they take refuge in microdistricts on the outskirts of the city where they are not officially registered do not own property and have limited access to public services makhmutova in the absence of the cities readiness to accept and accommodate new residents they join informal economic sectors by settling in cheaper peripheral areas around large cities migrants contribute to urban sprawl since land and property prices are high they usually occupy rural land and build individual houses from the cheapest accessible local materials eg clay with poor amenities furnace heating and no central sewage system and are vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquake and flooding migrants living in unauthorised housing such as former dachas have no valid address and thus no official status not all migrants are highly educated but they are highly motivated and entrepreneurial they bring a diversity of skills and competencies to the urban economy necessary for development