Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 26 – In 2025, 23,700 people moved to Kazakhstan from other countries while only 7600 left, according to Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics. More than half of those arriving were ethnic Kazakhs (12,900) while smaller numbers of Karakalpaks (1800) and Uzbeks (1700) were involved.
As far as ethnic Russians are concerned, 3400 came to Kazakhstan for permanent residence while 4300 left, a major change from earlier decades. And ethnic Germans, another nation whose members left in large numbers, declined to 993 (spik.kz/2583-vneshnjaja-migracija-pogodu-delajut-kandasy-a-rossijskij-faktor-obnuljaetsja.html).
This shift in which Kazakhs from abroad (the so-called Oralmane or Kandasy) set the weather by coming back rather than Russians and Germans represents a major change from the past, and it is a trend that the Kazakhstan government has tried to regulate more closely while opposition groups have called for an even more welcoming approach.
According to Astana, 62,4 percent of the ethnic Kazakhs returning from abroad were from Uzbekistan last year, 20 percent were from China, 6.5 percent were from Turkmenistan, 5.1 percent were from Russia, 3.5 percent were from Mongolia, and 2.5 percent from all other countries combined.
Both the arrival of ethnic Kazakhs from abroad and the declining departures of ethnic Russians and ethnic Germans from Kazakhstan reflect the ethnic sorting out that has been taking place across the former Soviet space. Most Russians and Germans who were in Kazakhstan earlier have left, and many Kazakhs living abroad are now returning.
And what this means, of course, is the reintegration of ethnic Kazakhs from abroad is now a larger problem for Kazakhstan’s government and society than coping with the departure of ethnic Russians, however much it remains the case that outflows of the latter continue to attract more attention at least outside of Kazakhstan.
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