Renegotiating Identities and Cultural Legacies Chapter Twelve Be(com)ing Uzbek

Kazakhstan
Southern Kazakhstan was included in the study not only because it contains one of the largest Uzbek minorities, long indigenous to the local setting, but also because it provides an important counterpoint to the three other sites. Up to the present day, the area has not experienced any serious conflicts or interethnic tensions, and while this is to some degree true for the whole state of Kazakhstan, relations between Uzbeks and the titular group seem particularly amiable. This may come as a surprise, insofar as the two respective states compete with each other for regional dominance in Central Asia and can hardly be said to be on friendly terms with each other.
Indeed, friendly mutual relations and a strong expression of loyalty toward the state of Kazakhstan very much characterize the positioning of local Uzbeks, fostered by a rather affirmative policy in this regard. Like other minorities in the country, they participate actively in the numerous occasions where slogans of “unity in diversity” and the like are commemorated. Uzbeks play an obvious role in the Assembly of Cultures due to their numerical strength, and they enjoy distinct radio and TV channels as well as other rights of cultural self-determination. This is, as mentioned, never combined with any regret at being citizens of Kazakhstan, and the neighboring state of Uzbekistan, merely a half-an-hour drive from the regional center of Shymkent, another fieldwork site, is hardly an attractive alternative to live in these days.
The two countries have experienced sharply different economic and political paths in recent decades. Kazakhstan weathered a period of severe crisis during the early and mid-1990s, but has experienced a remarkable boom since; while the situation in Uzbekistan is stagnating at best. Within Kazakhstan, the southern provinces have reaped the most benefits from economic recovery, and Shymkent region, a traditional trading hub, is no exception to this. By all accounts, Uzbeks play a prominent role in this and have on average seen their living standards increase during the last ten–fifteen years. And while maybe not the most democratic place on earth, individual freedoms are certainly much more developed than in Uzbekistan. Thus, Kazakhstan is, for most of them, a more attractive place to live, both for economic and political reasons.
This loyalty does have, however, an impact on the status of Uzbek culture and language. Kazakh as the national idiom is gradually growing in importance and has begun to replace Russian as the principal language of higher education. At the same time, Uzbekistan is not considered an alternative residential option. This case is not so much an issue of identity change—although there are undoubtedly individuals who do switch their ethnic attachment for one or the other reason—but one of adaptation. As the titular ethnie, Kazakhs do not expect others to assimilate; rather, other groups should stay separate and show their respect—for example, by learning the national language.
Oralman, or Kazakh ethnic repatriants, play an important role in this case study. Originating from Mongolia, China, or Uzbekistan, these had been officially invited to resettle in their “native homeland” following its independence in 1991. By now more than one million have done so, with two-thirds of them coming from Uzbekistan.³¹ This has changed the local ethnic configuration tremendously. Rather than serving as a potential bridge—as being fluent in both languages—the oralman form a separate category that is at odds with the established set of relationships. Despite their migration background, they tend to see themselves as belonging to the national entity in a more intimate way than they may grant the local Uzbeks who have been living here for centuries. As this is also a question of access to resources, in particular land, the response to this is easy to imagine. But also many of the local Kazakhs imagine their Uzbek neighbors as closer and more reliable than the co-ethnics from abroad, resulting in new clusters based on locality rather than genealogy, as would be the expected patterns among Kazakhs.³² When it comes to marriage, however, unions with oralman are nevertheless preferred to those with Uzbeks.