The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia: transnational migration from 1990–2008

Abstract

The Kazakhs are the largest minority group in Mongolia, a relatively homogenous country dominated by Khalkh Mongols. Since 1991, Mongolia has transitioned politically and economically and witnessed significant changes in internal and international migration flows. The large-scale movement of ethnic Kazakhs from Western Mongolia to Kazakhstan represents one such emerging international flow. This migration is influenced by economic motivations, historical cultural ties to Kazakhstan, and immigration policies of both countries. This paper assesses the local and national circumstances that shape migration decision-making in Western Mongolia during the transition years and highlights changes in the characteristics and directions of migration flows during this time. We identify three periods of migration with each period characterized by changing economies and national policies in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, as well as changes in communications technologies and extensiveness of social networks among prospective migrants. These periods illustrate how transnational migration flows evolve through time and are affected by national, local, and individual circumstances.

Keywords:

• Kazakhs
• migration
• diaspora
• repatriation
• Mongolia
• Kazakhstan

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by National Science Foundation Grant #BCS-0752411, as well as the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Texas A&M, Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M, International Studies Program at Texas A&M, AAG Research Grant from the Association of American Geographers, and a Wallace Travel and Research Grant from Macalester College. The authors additionally wish to thank our research assistants Amangul, Nurshash, Naranbataar and Gulinka.

Notes

¹Glick Schiller et al., ‘Transnationalism’, 1.

²Cohen, ‘Transnational migration in rural Oaxaca’, 955. This need for migration models that reflect the multiplicity of scales of analyses and factors is echoed by other scholars as well (e.g. Sirkeci, ‘Transnational migration and conflict’; Glick Schiller, ‘Transnationalism’).

³Golledge and Stimson, Spatial Behavior, 451–456.

⁴Werner and Barcus, ‘Mobility and Immobility in a Transnational Context’, 52–53.

⁵National Statistical Office of Mongolia, Mongolian Population in the XX Century, 367, 369.

⁶Flynn, Migrant Resettlement in the Russian Federation.

⁷UNDP, Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan, 4.

⁸UNDP, Ibid., 13. The figure used in the UNDP report (71,000) was collected from the Kazakhstani Agency of Statistics and refers to oralmandar arriving within and outside the quota from 1991 to 2005. However, it is important to note that the number of Mongolian Kazakh migrants varies from one source to another, in part due to the difficulty of counting non-quota migrants and in part due to the fact that different sources are basing their information on different years. Alexander Diener estimates that 60,000 Mongolian Kazakhs migrated to Kazakhstan in the 1990s. He also notes that the 1999 Kazakhstan census only refers to 42,426, which he and other scholars believe to be an undercount. The figure used in the UNDP report (71,000) was collected from the Kazakhstani Agency of Statistics and refers to oralmandar arriving within and outside the quota from 1991 to 2005. Diener, ‘Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan’, 469.

⁹Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 162, 194, 268; Diener, ‘Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan’, 473.

¹⁰Barcus and Werner, ‘Transnational identities: Mongolian Kazakhs in the Twenty-first Century’, 4–10.

¹¹Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 98–99.

¹²Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 103.

¹³Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 99.

¹⁴National Statistical Office of Mongolia (NSOM), Mongolian Population in XX Century, 367.

¹⁵NSOM 2003, 367, 369.

¹⁶NSOM, 2003, 375, 377.

¹⁷Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 136–137.

¹⁸Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 177; Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 118.

¹⁹Bacon, Central Asians Under Russian Rule; Werner, ‘Household Networks and the Security of Mutual Indebtedness in Rural Kazakhstan’, 597–612.

²⁰Finke, ‘Does Privatization mean Commoditisation?’, 203–205.

²¹Finke, ibid., 206–208; Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Mongolia’, 124.

²²Barcus, ‘Mongolia in the 21^stCentury’.

²³Brubaker, ‘Political Dimensions of Migration from and among Soviet Successor States’; King and Melvin, Nations Abroad, 110.

²⁴Pilkington, Migration, Displacement and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia.

²⁵Diener, ‘Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan’, 469; Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 114–115. The Kazakhstan census includes figures for immigration and emigration, but does not break this down by ethnic group (or ethnic group by country of origin). Official figures for the oralmandar are cited in the UNDP report. However, from our interviews, we know that some Mongolian Kazakhs migrate to Kazakhstan outside of the quota system and some Mongolian Kazakhs receive quota and then return to Mongolia. Official figures on the number of Mongolian oralmandar are unlikely to capture these instances.

²⁶UNDP, Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan, 13. Although there are over one million Kazakhs living in Western China, there are fewer migrants, in part because it is more difficult for them to get approval to leave from the Chinese government. Finke, ‘Migration and Risk Taking’, 135.

²⁷UNDP, ‘Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan’, 9–10.

²⁸Diener, One Homeland or Two?. Two additional scholars should be mentioned: Gulnara Mendikulova who has published several works on the oralmandar in Russian language sources, and Anna Genina who is currently working on a dissertation at the University of Michigan on the oralmandar in Kazakhstan.

²⁹Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’.

³⁰Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 114–116; Sancak and Finke, ‘Migration and Risk-Taking’, 127–161.

³¹Cummings, ‘The Kazakhs’.

³²Lacaze, ‘“Run After Time”’; Enwall, ‘Minority Policies and Inter-Ethnic Relations in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia’; Portische, ‘Kazakh Syrmaq-Production in Western Mongolia’; Post, ‘“I Take My Dombra and Sing to Remember My Homeland”’.

³³Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 184.

³⁴Diener, Ibid., 185.

³⁵Diener, Ibid., 186–190.

³⁶Diener, Ibid., 176–177.

³⁷Diener, Ibid., 162; Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 118–119. Both Diener and Finke, however, acknowledge that there were some tensions in Kazakh-Mongol relations in the early 1990s, as some Kazakhs pushed for further autonomy and the possibility of secession.

³⁸Diener, Ibid., 4.

³⁹Diener, Ibid., 162.

⁴⁰Diener, Ibid., 280–281.

⁴¹Diener, ‘Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh Return Migrants in Kazakhstan’, 465–478; Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 115–116.

⁴²Pilkington, Migration, Displacement and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia; Uehling, ‘The Crimean Tatars in Uzbekistan’.

⁴³Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology, 188; Schensul et al., Essential Ethnographic Methods, 246.

⁴⁴Funding for the 2008–2009 research comes from a National Science Foundation Grant #BCS-0752411.

⁴⁵Finke, ‘The Kazakhs of Western Mongolia’, 121.

⁴⁶Finke, ‘Does Privatization Mean Commoditisation?’, 206.

⁴⁷UNDP, Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan, 9.

⁴⁸Ibid., 9. Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’, 135.

⁴⁹Kuscu, Ibid., 138.

⁵⁰Kuscu, Ibid., 135, 139. According to the Law on Immigration, a ‘family’ is defined broadly in a way that includes the adult applicant, his/her spouse, children, parents, siblings (if unmarried), grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

⁵¹Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 227.

⁵²Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’, 137.

⁵³UNDP, Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan, 10. This report provides a full outline of benefits provided for oralmandar.

⁵⁴Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 226; Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’, 135.

⁵⁵The Mongolian government did not object to these labor contracts. The out-migration of Kazakhs was supported by a constitutional right for Mongolian citizens to select their place of residence, and helped reduce pressures on local governments during the difficult early transition years. Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 114.

⁵⁶Diener, Ibid., 228.

⁵⁷Diener, Ibid., 228.

⁵⁸Diener, Ibid., 302–303; Finke, ‘Migration and Risk-Taking’, 136; Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’, 187–188.

⁵⁹Goyal, ‘A Development Perspective on Mongolia’, 645.

⁶⁰Ibid., 646.

⁶¹UNDP Mongolia, 2000, 24.

⁶²Ibid., 23.

⁶³FAOSTAT, Food Security Statistics.

⁶⁴Griffin, Agricultural Involution and Urban-to Rural Migration in Mongolia, 4–5.

⁶⁵Ibid., 5; Dzud refers to harsh winter conditions in which livestock struggle to find adequate fodder, ofter resulting in high rates of death from starvation.

⁶⁶NSOM, Mongolian Population in XX Century, 80.

⁶⁷The 1989 and 2000 census population counts remain fairly stable although there is evidence of both extensive out-migration to Kazakhstan and return migration. Other factors that likely contribute to maintaining the size of the population include the higher than replacement fertility rates among Mongolia Kazakhs, and fluctuating internal net migration rates. The maintenance of a sizable Kazakh population in this province further increases the likelihood that out-migrants will consider returning to Bayan-Ulgii.

⁶⁸NSOM, Mongolia in a Market System, 86.

⁶⁹NSOM, Statistical Yearbook 2003, 146.

⁷⁰Lacaze, ‘Run After Time’. This paper is based on an ethnographic study of Kazakh traders based in Ulgii.

⁷¹UNDP, Status of Oralmans in Kazakhstan, 10.

⁷²Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 260–263; Kuscu, ‘Kazakhstan's Oralman Project’, 135.

⁷³Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 268–271.

⁷⁴UNDP, Status of Oralman's in Kazakhstan, 4.

⁷⁵Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 227.

⁷⁶Diener, One Homeland or Two?, 251, 310–311.

⁷⁷UNDP, Status of Oralman's in Kazakhstan, 9.

⁷⁸UNDP, Ibid., 16.

⁷⁹UNDP, Ibid., 17.

⁸⁰UNDP, Ibid., 9.

⁸¹UNDP, Ibid., 13.

⁸²Diener, ‘Negotiating Territorial Belonging’, 466.

⁸³In collecting interviews and survey data, we define migrant households as those in which a current or former household member migrated to Kazakhstan at any time since 1991.

⁸⁴NSOM, Statistical Yearbook 2004, 246; NSOM, Statistical Yearbook, 2008, Table 17.3.

⁸⁵NSOM, Statistical Yearbook 2008, Table 17.7.

⁸⁶NSOM, Mongolia in a Market System, 113, 205.

⁸⁷Ibid., 86.

⁸⁸NSOM, Statistical Yearbook 2007, Calculated from Tables 4.2 and 4.5.

⁸⁹Mamashev, ‘“Nurly Kosh” program reflects all ethnic Kazakhs' positive experience in migration and adaptation’; Lillis, ‘Kazakhstan: Astana Lures Ethnic Kazakh Migrants with Financial Incentives’.

⁹⁰Diener, One Homeland or Two?

⁹¹Sirkeci, ‘Transnational migration and Conflict’.