Kazakhs Resettling from Abroad Face Problems in Cities Because of Language and in Villages Because of Culture

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 29 – Ethnic Kazakhs returning from other countries to live in Kazakhstan face very different problems depending on whether they choose to live in cities or rural areas, a new discussion suggests. In the cities, where most prefer to go, their lack of Russian puts them at a disadvantage. In the villages, their cultural distinctiveness sets them apart.

            Since gaining independence in 1991, the Kazakhstan government has promoted the return of ethnic Kazakhs from other former Soviet republics and foreign countries. More than a million have come back. But they have not always found acceptance by native Kazakhs or been able to achieve social mobility there.

            The Platon.Asia portal says that the government’s effort to overcome these problems by renaming this group kandastar (“compatriots”) in place of what many see as the denigrating term “oralmans” has not worked. Many Kazakhs in fact still identify such people by their country of origin (platon.asia/obshchestvo/trudnosti-integratsii-oralmanov).

            The reception of such people in general and of the 350,000 ethnic Kazakhs from China (1.5 million still live there) has created both domestic and foreign policy problems for Nur-Sultan, but it is important to understand that the problem is far more complicated than many think depending on where the ethnic Kazakhs are from and where they choose to settle.

            The language knowledge of such Kazakh immigrants depends to a large degree on where they are from. Those from former Soviet republics typically know Russian although they may not know Kazakh. In the cities this helps them because most urban Kazakhs now prefer to speak Russian lest they be identified as “Mambets,” slang for followers of Islam.

            But the cultural differences they and especially those from beyond the former borders of the USSR bring mean that many urban Kazakhs view them as outsiders anyway, the portal says.  But Kazakhs from China and elsewhere typically don’t know Kazakh or use the Arabic script for writing it and set themselves at odds with the indigenous population as well.

            Kazakhs returning from abroad face entirely different challenges in the villages. There, most people speak Kazakh and so the returnees who know it are not a problem in that regard. But because many have less education, they often compete with village people for jobs and thus are viewed as “aliens” for that reason.

            In short, Platon.Asia says, returning Kazakhs are “caught between two fires,” and addressing them all with a common program isn’t likely to work at least in the short term. But integrating them is critical, the site continues, if Kazakhstan is going to be successful in developing a multi-ethnic society which values human capital above all.