Repatriates and the urban space in the Eastern Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Due to certain historical developments, 4,5 million ethnic Kazakhs found themselves outside Kazakhstan, whose ancestors had left the country at different times. Since its independence, Kazakhstan has started to conduct the policy of inviting compatriots to return to their historical homeland. The oralman (the «returnees») are foreigners or persons of Kazakh origins who did not have the Kazakh citizenship at the time Kazakhstan became independent and who afterwards came back to the country for permanent residence in accordance with the Kazakh legislation. Due to the policy of repatriation of ethnic Kazakhs (the oralman) in the late 20 to the beginning of the 21 centuries, the Kazakhs have come to constitute the absolute majority of the population of Kazakhstan. The article aims to study the specificities of adaptation of the repatriates to the realities of Eastern Kazakhstan, based on the case of the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk and its neighbourhoods. The article draws on author»s conversations/interviews with some ethnic repatriates who came from China and Mongolia at different times. The problems the repatriates, who returned to their historical homeland in the 1990s and 2000s, are confronted with are shown through everyday life practices. Based on informants» memories, the article attempts to compare the process of adaptation of the repatriates in the city and in the countryside. A number of issues the repatriates have to deal with come up from these interviews. The oralman that moved to Kazakhstan in the early 1990s were placed in auls and given cattle in order to settle in the countryside. However, many of them had used to live in completely different climates before and to engage in other types of agriculture. Some came from cities and were not able to find work in the countryside. The lack of knowledge of the Russian language also reduces repatriates» chances of making a career. The oralman who moved to Kazakhstan after the year 2000 have been adapting more successfully. The language is not that much of a problem for the oralman of the 2000s than for those who came in the 1990s. The elderly get used to the new environment with greater difficulty than the youth. Many of the former still do not see themselves as the «Kazakhs of Kazakhstan» and find it hard to have to feel like aliens among their compatriots. Another issue is the rupture of relations with their relatives that have stayed abroad. They try to visit and see them as often as they can afford it, however it is not always possible and so the relations become severed.

Keywords

Authors

References