Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:19:37.611Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explaining Kazakhstani identity: supraethnic identity, ethnicity, language, and citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Kristoffer Michael Rees  and
Nora Webb Williams
Kristoffer Michael Rees*
Affiliation:
Political Science, Indiana University East, Richmond, IN, USA
Nora Webb Williams
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The demographic composition of Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union presented a dilemma to the new Kazakhstani government: Should it advance a Kazakh identity as paramount, possibly alienating the large non-Kazakh population? Or should it advocate for a non-ethnicized national identity? How would those decisions be made in light of global norms of liberal multiculturalism? And, critically, would citizens respond to new frames of identity? This paper provides an empirical look at supraethnic identity-building in Kazakhstan – that is, at the development of a national identity that individuals place above or alongside their ethnic identification. We closely examine the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan to describe how Kazakhstani policies intersect with theories of nationalism and nation-building. We then use ordered probit models to analyze data from a 2014 survey to examine how citizens of Kazakhstan associate with a “Kazakhstani” supraethnic identity. Our findings suggest that despite the Assembly of People's rhetoric, there are still significant barriers to citizen-level adoption of a supraethnic identity in Kazakhstan, particularly regarding language. However, many individuals do claim an association with Kazakhstani identity, especially those individuals who strongly value citizenship in the abstract.

Keywords

supraethnic identityethnicitylanguagecitizenshipKazakhstan
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 815 - 839
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adolph, Christopher. 2013a. “Simcf: Counterfactuals and Confidence Intervals for Estimated Models.” R Software Package, Version 0.2.10.Google Scholar
Adolph, Christopher. 2013b. “Tile: Plot Multiple Graphical Displays in a Tiled Layout with Automated or Customizable Titles, Axes, and Annotations.” R Software Package, Version 0.4.8.Google Scholar
Amrekulov, Nurlan, and Masanov, Nurbolat. 1994. Kazakhstan mezhdu proshlym i budushchim Kazakhstan between Past and Future. Almaty: Beren.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism Rev. and extended ed‥ London: Verso.Google Scholar
Assembleiia Naroda Kazakhstana. 2009. Doktrina natsional'nogo edinstsva Kazakhstana [Doctrine of National Unity of Kazakhstan]. Accessed January 10, 2010. http://assembly.kz/doktrina-naczionalnogo-edinstva-kazaxstana/item/download/36.html.Google Scholar
Assembly.kz. 2015a. Qyzmeti [Activities]. Accessed June 25, 2016. http://assembly.kz/kk/kyzmeti-0.Google Scholar
Assembly.kz. 2015b. Deputattyq top [Deputy group]. Accessed June 25, 2016. http://assembly.kz/kk/deputattyk-top.Google Scholar
Bohr, Annette. 1998. “The Central Asian States as Nationalising Regimes.” In Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities, edited by Smith, Graham, Vivien, Law, Wilson, Andrew, Bohr, Annette, and Allworth, Edward, 139–166. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bremmer, Ian. 1994. “Nazarbaev and the North: State-building and Ethnic Relations in Kazakhstan.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 17 (4): 619–635.Google Scholar
Brown, Bess. 1987. Radio Liberty Research Bulletin, Issues 3414–3430.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Commercio, Michele. 2010. Russian Minority Politics in Post-Soviet Latvia and Kyrgyzstan. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Dave, Bhavna. 2007. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, Language and Power. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Diener, Alexander. 2009. One Homeland or Two?: The Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia's Kazakhs. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Djumaev, Aleksander. 2001. “Nation-Building, Culture and Problems of Ethnocultural Identity in Central Asia: The Case of Uzbekistan.” In Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported: Western Political Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe, edited by Kymlicka, Will and Opalski, Magda, 320–344. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
FBIS-SOV-89-064. 1989. “Kazakh's Kolbin Interviewed on Interethnic Relations,” Krasnaya Zvezda, first edition, March 31, 1989, 1–2. As published in: Daily Report. Soviet Union, FBIS-SOV-89-064 on 1989-04-05 Under the heading(s): Political & Social, NATIONAL AFFAIRS [Page 69]. Accessed June 25, 2016. http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=FBISX&p_theme=fbis&p_nbid=A5CW490CMTQ2Njg4MjMzNC41NTgyODA6MToxNDoxNDAuMTgyLjE3Ni4xMw&p_action=doc&p_docref=v2:11C33B0D5F860D98@FBISX-125D7AECCDF22120@2447622-125D7B1C34964F90-125D7B1C648D25B0.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D. 1996. “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation.” The American Political Science Review 90 (4): 715–735.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D. 2000. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.” International Organization 54 (4): 945–877.Google Scholar
Fierman, William. 2000. “Changing Urban Demography and the Prospects of Nationalism in Kazakhstan.” Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism XXVII: 7–19.Google Scholar
Freedom House. 2015. “Freedom in the World 2015: Kazakhstan.” Accessed October 25, 2015. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2015#.VhrB93pVhBc.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry. 2011. “Formal Constitutions in Informal Politics: Institutions and Democratization in Post-Soviet Eurasia.” World Politics 63 (4): 581–617.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael. 2000. Containing Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heller, Mikhail. 1988. Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Howard, Marc Morje. 2006. “Comparative Citizenship: An Agenda for Cross-National Research.” Perspectives on Politics 4 (3): 443–455.Google Scholar
Howard, Marc Morje. 2009. The Politics of Citizenship in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Isaacs, Rico. 2015. “Nomads, Warriors, and Bureaucrats: Nation-Building and Film in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan.” Nationalities Papers 43 (3): 399–416.Google Scholar
Isaacs, Rico, and Polese, Abel. 2015. “Between ‘Imagined’ and ‘Real’ Nation-Building: Identities and Nationhood in Post-Soviet Central Asia.” Nationalities Papers 43 (3): 371–382.Google Scholar
Kazakhstan. 2015. Map. Google Maps. http://www.maps.google.com.Google Scholar
Kazakhstan Respublikasy Ulttyk Ekonomika Ministrligi Statistika Komiteti. 2016. Chislennost’ naselenija Respubliki Kazahstan po otdel'nym etnosam na nachalo 2016 goda [The population of the Republic of Kazakhstan by ethnic groups at the beginning of 2016]. Accessed June 25 2016. http://www.stat.gov.kz/getImg?id = ESTAT118979.Google Scholar
Kim, German. 2011. “Confessions of a Koryo Saram.” October 23. Fair Observer. Accessed May 17, 2014. http://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/confessions-koryo-saram/.Google Scholar
Kish, Leslie. 1965. Survey Sampling. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Kolst⊘, Pål. 2000. Political Construction Sites: Nation-building in Russia and the Post-Soviet States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Konstitutsiia Soiuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). 1977. Accessed November 2, 2013. http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/red_1977/1549448/.Google Scholar
Kuscu Bonnenfant, Isik. 2012. “Constructing the Homeland: Kazakhstan's Discourse and Policies Surrounding its Ethnic Return-Migration Policy.” Central Asian Survey 31 (1): 31–44.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will, and Opalski, Magda, eds. 2001. Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported: Western Political Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. D. 1998. Identity in Formation: The Russian-speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2015. “The Three Discursive Paradigms of State Identity in Kazakhstan: Kazakhness, Kazakhstanness, and Transnationalism.” In Nationalism and Identity Construction in Central Asia: Dimensions, Dynamics, and Directions, edited by Omelchieva, Mariya Y., 1–20. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Robert Gurr, Ted, and Jaggers, Keith. 2014. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2013: Dataset Users’ Manual. College Park: University of Maryland, Center for Systematic Peace.Google Scholar
Megoran, Nick. 2007. “On Researching ‘Ethnic Conflict': Epistemology, Politics, and a Central Asian Boundary Dispute.” Europe-Asia Studies 59 (2): 253–277.Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. 2011. Country Profile. Accessed November 2, 2012. http://www.kazakhembus.com/sites/default/files/publications/Country_Profile_2011.pdf.Google Scholar
Nazarbayev, Nursultan A. 1992. Kazakhstannyn egemendi mamleket retinde kalyptasuy men damytunyn strategiyasy [Strategy for the Formation and Development of Kazakhstan as a Sovereign State]. Almaty: Dauir.Google Scholar
Nysanbaev, Abdumalik. 2012. Mul'tikul'turalizm v postsovetskom Kazahstane: itogi, problemy, perspektivy. [Multiculturalism in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Results, Problems Perspectives]. E-history.kz. Accessed July 8, 2016. http://e-history.kz/media/upload/72/2013/09/05/19a715c9646b8180f909d2597831f98f.pdf.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, and Kevlihan, Rob. 2013. “Threading a Needle: Kazakhstan between Civic and Ethno-nationalist State-building.” Nations and Nationalism 19 (2): 337–356.Google Scholar
Pannier, Bruce. 2007. “Kazakhstan: Ethnic Minorities Guaranteed Seats in Parliament.” RFE/RL Kazakhstan. June 29. Accessed August 19, 2012. http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1077396.html.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2004. “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.” American Political Science Review 98 (4): 529–545.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2007. “Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 40 (11): 1302–1327.Google Scholar
Rees, Kristoffer. 2015. “Citizenship, Identity Politics, and Language Choice in Kazakhstan.” Unpublished diss., Indiana University.Google Scholar
Renan, Ernest. 1882. “What is a Nation?” Translated and Annotated by Martin Thom, reprinted in Homi K. Bhabha, ed. 1990. Nation and Narration, 8–22. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ripley, Brian, Venables, Bill, Bates, Douglas M., Hornik, Kurt, Albrecht, Gebhardt, and Firth, David. 2013. “MASS.” R Software Package, Version 7.3-29.Google Scholar
Sahadeo, Jeff. 2015. History and Memory: Implications for Pluralism in Kyrgyzstan and the Ferghana Valley. Ottawa: Global Center for Pluralism.Google Scholar
Schatz, Edward. 2000. “Framing Strategies and Non-conflict in Multi-ethnic Kazakhstan.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 6 (2): 71–94.Google Scholar
Schatz, Edward. 2009. “The Soft Authoritarian Tool Kit: Agenda-setting Power in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” Comparative Politics 41 (2): 203–222.Google Scholar
Smagulova, Juldyz. 2008. “Language Policies of Kazakhization and Their Influence on Language Attitudes and Use.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 11 (3–4): 440–475.Google Scholar
Smailov, A. A. 2000. Natsional'nii sostav naseleniia Respbubliki Kazakhstan 1 tom: Itogi perepisi naseleniia 1999 goda v Respublike Kazakhstan [National Composition of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Volume 1: Totals of the 1999 Census in the Republic of Kazakhstan]. Almaty: Agentstvo Respubliki Kazakhstan po statistike.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 2003. Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Today.kz. 2016. Izbrany devjat’ deputatov mazhilisa ot Assamblei naroda Kazahstana [Nine Deputies of the Mazhilis Elected from the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan]. March 21. Accessed June 23, 2016. http://today.kz/news/kazahstan/2016-03-21/712669-izbranyi-devyat-deputatov-mazhilisa-ot-assamblei-naroda-kazahstana/.Google Scholar
Tugzhanov, Eraly L. 2010a. Kazakhstan Khalkhy Assambleyasy: Tarikhi ocherk [Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan: Historical Overview]. Almaty: Raritet.Google Scholar
Tugzhanov, Eraly L. 2010b. “Novye podhody k konsolidacii obshhestva: problemnye aspekty.” SMI v sisteme politicheskih institutov: teorija i praktika [New Approaches to the Consolidation of Society: Problematic Aspects of the Media in the System of Political Institutions: Theory and Practice]. Astana: ENU im. L.N. Gumileva. Accessed July 2, 2016. http://articlekz.com/article/7588.Google Scholar
Zakon Respubliki Kazakhstan. 2008. Ob Assamblee naroda Kazakhstana [About the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan]. Accessed November 3, 2012. http://www.assembly.kz/pravovaya-baza-ank/item/390-закон-республики-казахстан-об-ассамблее-народа-казахстана.Ь1т1.html.Google Scholar
Zhandagulova, Gul'nara. 2011. Mul'tikul'turalizm zhivet v Kazahstane, schitaet Premyer Ministr RK [The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Holds that Multiculturalism is Alive in Kazakhstan]. Kazinform.kz, April 18. Accessed July 2, 2016. http://www.inform.kz/rus/article/2372108.Google Scholar
Zholdabayev, Zhasulan. 2016. QKhA QR Parlamenti Mazhilisinin 9 deputatyn sajlady (FOTO) [9 Parliamentary Deputies Elected from the APK]. Today.kz, March 21. Accessed June 25, 2016. http://www.inform.kz/kaz/article/2883795.Google Scholar