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Exploring "North" and "South" in post-Soviet Bishkek: Discourses and perceptions of rural-urban migration
Abstract
In this paper we explore, through the narratives and perspectives of “old residents” in post-Soviet Bishkek, the dominant discourse which has emerged towards rural migrants arriving to the city from other areas of Kyrgyzstan from the late Soviet period onwards. We investigate the existence of a primarily “antagonistic” discourse in relation to the migrants and analyze this in detail to understand how it illuminates wider concerns amongst residents about what is occurring in their city, and about wider processes of social change in Kyrgyzstan. The paper provides a revealing insight into the processes of urban change in post-Soviet Central Asia, and demonstrates the ways in which confrontation with the everyday harsh realities of post-Soviet transformation can lead to the negative “othering” of one group of urban residents by another. We also demonstrate how the “old residents'” perceptions of migrants reveal important insights into emerging notions and constructions of identity in the post-Soviet period, related in this case to understandings of “North” and “South'1 and related concepts of what is “urban” and what is “Kyrgyz”.
... Lack of proficiency in Russian language, rude behavior and tasteless appearance are seen to be the features of a myrka (Schröder 2010: 455–456). M. Flynn and N. Kosmarskaya suggest that internal migrants have fallen victim because in the wider context of socioeconomic , political and cultural difficulties in Kyrgyzstan, they were scapegoated (Flynn, Kosmarskaya 2012: 467). The de jure illegal status of the land reinforces stigmatization. ...
... Such a separation from the rest of the city population resulted in the marginalization of Kyzyl Zher dwellers. Being at the margins of the city, not only had they little contact with the Bishkek residents (Flynn, Kosmarskaya 2012: 460) but also they were left to deal with their internal problems themselves. For instance, during the frequent land conflicts in the settlement, people first and foremost turned to Kuban for the resolution of the conflict, despite the fact that he is not officially responsible for this. ...
... Agrarian practices are often perceived as unable to elevate households out of poverty, reinforcing the need for further labour migration (Schoch et al., 2010). The change in economic perspective has brought about a new era of what exactly it means to be "Kyrgyz" and what the perception of 'the good life' is in a nation where labour migration is increasingly driving the urban-rural socioeconomic and cultural divide (de la Croix, 2016;Flynn & Kosmarskaya, 2012). This massive transnational movement implies that migration and remittances are actively shaping Kyrgyzstan's future, along with accompanying increases in socioeconomic disparities. ...
This study analyses the relationships between labour migration and community perceptions of gender relations and roles in Kyrgyzstan, the second-most remittance-dependent economy in the world. Based on 591 surveys and 34 qualitative interviews with adult household members in the At-Bashy rayon, we analysed migration decision-making processes as well as community perceptions of women’s migration, women’s labour patterns, and associations between migration and divorce. We found that migrant women are praised for their economic contributions to their households via remittances, yet also shamed by their communities for withdrawing from traditional gendered practices around child-rearing and marriage. Thus, our evidence suggests that migration contributes to some limited changes in social expectations regarding women’s traditional roles in rural Kyrgyzstan. This article demonstrates the importance of studying relationships between out-migration and gender across migrant and non-migrant households in origin communities.
... Kyrgyzstan is one of the smallest urbanized republics of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), where unprecedented urban growth rates (38%) have risen over the last 30 years, in which there are only a few big urban centers in the republic (Kostyukova 1994). From the late Soviet period onwards, the number of migrants arriving in Bishkek from predominantly rural areas significantly increased (Flynn and Kosmarskaya 2012). The rapid expansion of urban areas has led to the depletion of natural resources, which creates several environmental and ecological imbalances and increases the risk of natural/human-made hazards (Eva et al. 2004b;Milesi et al. 2003). ...
DMSP-OLS stаble nighttime light dаta version 4 (1 km resolution) from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Line-scan System (OLS) temporal nighttime light dataset provides a new way of information to monitor human activities on a global scale. However, the DMSP-OLS sensor data cannot be used directly to compare with other satellite datasets for human activities because it has no onboard calibration mechanism. This study used a newly developed systematically correcting temporal multi-satellite nightlight data from 1992 to 2013 for Kyrgyzstan, validation with different data sources (Landsat, Global Human Settlements, and population datasets). The results revealed the effectiveness of the proposed validation and data correction method for urban growth dynamics with reducing errors, signal distortion, and discrepancies from the nightlight dataset and improved the quality and comparability of data with other datasets. The urban expansion dynamics are computed for Kyrgyzstan with average accuracy and kappa statistics of about 0.80% and 0.61%. Furthermore, the results showed that the stable nightlight dataset provides valuable information for monitoring urban expansion and its impacts on land cover dynamics. The study provides a useful preliminary information tool for urban planners and policy and decision-makers for the better management of urban planning in the main cities of Kyrgyzstan in the context of the day-by-day increasing population trend.
... The lack of comradeship and the dangerous driving style of labour migrants working as informal taxi drivers are often employed by their counterparts native to Tashkent in order to establish themselves as urban and to differentiate themselves from rural newcomers, routinely regarded across Central Asia as primitive, uncultured, uneducated and unfit to live in an urban environment (see Flynn and Kosmarskaya 2012). In order to further distance themselves from such stereotypes, most informal taxi drivers originating from Tashkent seldom admit that taxiing is their primary occupation, instead claiming that they only pick up passengers whose destination is along their route. ...
... Most studies on new settlements and internal migration note the marginal status of internal migrants (Flynn & Kosmarskaya, 2012) and describe in detail the discriminatory practices (Chekirova, 2018;Sanghera & Satybaldieva, 2012;Nasritdinov et al., 2012). Remaining questions include: How did internal migration influence the development of Bishkek? ...
The development of Kyrgyzstan reveals two important trends: declining agricultural production and a steady increase of remittances from labor migration. These trends suggest a transformative effect of migration, negating an overly simplistic investment effect of financial remittances on long standing livelihood activities. Although many studies agree that labor migration contributes to poverty reduction in rural Kyrgyzstan, only little attention has been paid so far to the question: What effect does migration have on rural development? This research paper is based on a desk study that focused on investigation of the state of knowledge about migration, rural change and migration policy in modern Kyrgyzstan, and suggests recommendations of prominent areas for future studies.
... When it comes to discriminating against their villager co-ethnics, Kyrgyz, long-term Bishkek dwellers have aligned themselves with Russian urbanites. Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012) also discuss the negative perceptions of newcomers and the antagonistic discourse by long-term Bishkek residents regarding rural migrants. Flynn and Kosmarskaya argue that the 'lack of culture' associated with southerners and their comparison to minority Uzbeks remain part of larger concerns about the loss of Soviet urban order, which accompanies broader post-Soviet socioeconomic restructuring (ibid.: 453-454). ...
Die folgende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema Stadtmigration in Astana (Kasachstan) und befasst sich mit der Forschungsfrage wie das Alltagsleben von Zugezogenen in der neuen Hauptstadt von Kasachstan aussieht. Mein Ziel war es, die verschiedenen Facetten des Alltagslebens und die daraus folgenden Herausforderungen zu untersuchen. Astana, seit 1997 die neue Hauptstadt von Kasachstan, wird oft das "Dubai Zentralasiens" genannt. Die kasachische Regierung wirbt für Astana als einen Grundpfeiler der neuen kasachischen nationalen Identität und als ein Symbol für das moderne, westliche, reiche neue Kasachstan. Die kasachischen Eliten feiern Astana als einen Triumph von Präsident Nazarbayev. Meine Forschung beruht darauf, dass ich vielfältige Selbsterzählungen von Kasachen sammelte, die nach Astana kamen um es zu "erobern". Damit leistet die Dissertation einen Beitrag zur urbanen Ethnographie in Zentralasien. Die Arbeit besteht aus fünf Hauptkapiteln. Kapitel eins umfasst die Einleitung und legt die theoretische und methodologische Grundlage der Arbeit fest. Der theoretische Ansatz von Setha Low „co-production of space“ (the social production and social construction of space) leitet die Forschungsfrage und der Begriff von Liminality (Turner 1967, Thomassen, 2014) wird als zentrales Grundkonzept die Analyse der Arbeit begleiten. Kapitel zwei beschreibt die Zugezogenen und definiert diese als priezzhie, die sich im Status von „in-between“ befinden. Kapitel drei beschreibt die Wohnsituation junger Zugezogener in Astana und Kapitel vier schildert das Single Leben von jungen Frauen. In den letzten Kapiteln geht es darum, welche Möglichkeiten und Chancen sich den Zugezogenen bieten, ihre Träume und Vorstellungen umzusetzen. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass die Erfahrungen, welche Zugezogene in Astana machen, sehr gut als Beispiele für liminal personae und liminales Wohnen verstanden werden können.
... This manner of defining in-group membership highlights the socio-cultural (language, manners, culture) rather than ethnic factors behind group identity difference and highlights how Almaty Russian-speakers gain security and confidence through 'alliance' with Russified Kazakhs. It also fits with research on post-Soviet Bishkek that reveals how the 'ruralization' of urban spaces causes a reaction from 'native urbanites' who hold similar positions regardless of ethnicity (Flynn and Kosmarskaya 2012). Laszczkowski (2016, 70) also found that 'young "urban" Kazakhs and Russians tended to group together, pointing to the "rural" as their common "spatial other".' ...
Research into post-independence identity shifts among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities has outlined a number of possible pathways, such as diasporization, integrated national minority status and ethnic separatism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with young people in Almaty and Karaganda, I examine how Russian-speaking minorities identify with the state and imagine their place in a ‘soft’ or ‘hybrid’ post-Soviet authoritarian system. What is found is that Russian-speaking minorities largely accept their status beneath the Kazakh ‘elder brother’ and do not wish to identify as a ‘national minority’. Furthermore, they affirm passive loyalty to the political status quo while remaining disinterested in political representation. Russian-speaking minorities are also ambivalent towards Kazakh language promotion and anxious about the increasing presence of Kazakh-speakers in urban spaces. This article argues that two factors are central to these stances among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities: the persistence of Soviet legacies and the effects of state discourse and policy since 1991.
... In answering these questions we draw attention to Bishkek, a city that has remained relatively underexplored in studies on post-socialism save for some important research on migration and the related growth of informal settlements (Flynn and Kosmarskaya, 2012;Hatcher, 2015;Sanghera et al., 2012), on emerging urban youth identity (Ibold, 2010;Schroeder, 2010), and housing policies in relation to ongoing privatisation (Hatcher, forthcoming). While a small body of literature is emerging on other cities in Central Asia (Alexander et al., 2007;Darieva et al., 2012;Gentile and Tammaru, 2006), studies on post-socialist cities tend to remain geographically focused on Eastern and Central Europe. ...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm for theorising how transitional processes have unfolded in post-socialist cities. In seeking to extend literature that uses the post-socialist condition as a tool for theory building, we draw attention to the ongoing processes of institutional change in post-socialist cities. In doing so, we reject a ‘top-down’ perspective and examine how these institutional transitions are shaped through processes of ‘domestication’, negotiation and contestation between different interest groups in the city. We develop our argument, by drawing attention to the local political debates surrounding the propiska in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The propiska developed throughout the Soviet Union to control internal migration and is still used today in a less restrictive form. By discussing our case study, we hope to foster attention towards the ongoing contested processes of institu- tional transition in post-socialist cities.
... and unpreparedness for 'civilisation' (Davé 2007;Grant 2010;Yessenova 2010a;Darieva 2011;Flynn & Kosmarskaya 2012;Diener & Hagen 2013a, 2013bFlynn et al. 2014). ...
As the seat of the Kazakh government and a booming city since 1998, Astana has attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants. As a cultural and financial capital, Almaty has also continued to boom, drawing comparable numbers of migrants from different regions of Kazakhstan. However, varying historical trajectories and historically constructed notions of the urban and rural, as articulated by the cultural elites and policy-makers, as well as different preparedness of the government for migration flows in the 1990s and the 2000s in Almaty and Astana respectively, have resulted in quite diverse attitudes toward mobility and different perceptions about how urban order should be achieved.
... Sometimes middle class actors' beliefs verge on social Darwinism, believing that the impoverished working class, especially poor rural migrants, are unfit to live in a civilised society, and should return to their villages, rather than blighting the urban landscape. The urban middle class pathologise them as uncultured, vulgar and barbaric (in Kyrgyz myrki), and blame them for crime and disorder in the city (see also Flynn and Kosmarskaya 2012). Wiegratz and Cesnulyte (2015) argue that in highly unequal societies where money is the key to securing life's basic necessities, it can become a chief signifier of power and respect. ...
This article investigates the subjectivities of working class people in Kyrgyzstan, examining their boundary work produced in response to neoliberal changes. While working class people are depicted as unenterprising and ‘backward’ by the rich and the middle classes, they often react with anger and lament the colonisation of life by market values, usually invoking non-market norms and nostalgia for the Soviet era of labour, solidarity and equality. Most importantly, they draw upon alternative cultural resources and discourses, such as traditional morality and Islam, to develop alternative ‘caring’ and ‘pious’ selves, which dissociate wealth from moral worth and provide other sources of self-esteem. But these counter-values can also be problematic, as they are ineffective in countering market forces and hardening class divisions.
... Bakiyev was born and grew up in Jalalabad in the south of the country and after holding various managerial positions became head (akim) of the region's administration from 1995 to 1997 (Abazov, 2004). The inauguration of a president who drew strong support from the south, together with declining living conditions in the southern regions provided a stimulus for migration from south to north and especially to the capital, Bishkek (Flynn and Kosmarskaya, 2012). Today, there are four illegal settlements in the city. ...
Research has shown how private homeownership features prominently in housing policy on a global basis. Little critique exists, however, on how property is framed in more contemporary privatisation policies unfolding in today's post-socialist cities. Taking the case study of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, this article examines the extent to which the government and international community remain focused on homeownership to the detriment of developing policies and legislation on other housing tenure, notably rental housing. The article examines two contemporary housing programmes: the introduction of homeowner associations and the government's approach towards informal settlements on the city's outskirts. These two programmes are examined as an entrenchment of earlier privatisation programmes introduced in the late 1980s and 1990s which resulted in the sale of state housing and the distribution of land on the city's outskirts. The results indicate that tenants often remain either invisible or their rights are subjugated to the owner's interests in contemporary housing policy and legislation. Moreover, where their rights are legally recognised, a disjuncture exists between representations and the reality of property that reflect wider notions of 'fuzzy' post-socialist property rights.
... Therefore, as a student at the 'American University' and as a new inhabitant of Kyrgyzstan's capital, it was a crucial adaptation for Bermet to further improve both her English and her Russian. Aside from academic reasons, speaking 'proper Russian' was necessary for Bermet to socialize within her circles of urban peers, but also to embed herself in Bishkek's cultural fabric and to avoid being stigmatized as an 'uncivilized rural' (Alymbaeva 2013;Flynn and Kosmarskaya 2012;Schröder 2010Schröder , 2012. ...
In the wider scientific debate, post-Soviet Central Asia has been primarily known for the question in what ways this region currently experiences a ‘New Great Game’ of geostrategy and resource-competition. In contrast to that, ethnographic research on the various cross-border mobilities, networks and identifications of non-elite actors from countries such as Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan has set off only recently. Proposing a conceptual approach based on ‘translocality’ and ‘livelihood’, this article presents in-depth case studies which explore how Central Asians engage in ‘business-making’, ‘evolve’ their Muslim piety, transgress rural-urban boundaries and experience ethnic marginalization in between ‘home’ and cities in Russia, China or Egypt. We show how mobility is institutionalized, i.e. how within these ‘translocal livelihoods’ geographic relocations do not only combine with social mobility, but that assessments on personal well-being and the orientation on cultural norms also draw on somebody’s particular position within social hierarchies of gender and generation.
... In answering these questions we draw attention to Bishkek, a city that has remained relatively underexplored in studies on post-socialism save for some important research on migration and the related growth of informal settlements (Flynn and Kosmarskaya, 2012;Hatcher, 2015;Sanghera et al., 2012), on emerging urban youth identity (Ibold, 2010;Schroeder, 2010), and housing policies in relation to ongoing privatisation (Hatcher, forthcoming). While a small body of literature is emerging on other cities in Central Asia (Alexander et al., 2007;Darieva et al., 2012;Gentile and Tammaru, 2006), studies on post-socialist cities tend to remain geographically focused on Eastern and Central Europe. ...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm for theorising how transitional processes have unfolded in post-socialist cities. In seeking to extend literature that uses the post-socialist condition as a tool for theory building, we draw attention to the ongoing processes of institutional change in post-socialist cities. In doing so, we reject a 'top-down' perspective and examine how these institutional transitions are shaped through processes of 'domestication', negotiation and contestation between different interest groups in the city. We develop our argument, by drawing attention to the local political debates surrounding the propiska in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The propiska developed throughout the Soviet Union to control internal migration and is still used today in a less restrictive form. By discussing our case study, we hope to foster attention towards the ongoing contested processes of institutional transition in post-socialist cities.
... In answering these questions we draw attention to Bishkek, a city that has remained relatively underexplored in studies on post-socialism save for some important research on migration and the related growth of informal settlements (Flynn and Kosmarskaya, 2012;Hatcher, 2015;Sanghera et al., 2012), on emerging urban youth identity (Ibold, 2010;Schroeder, 2010), and housing policies in relation to ongoing privatisation (Hatcher, forthcoming). While a small body of literature is emerging on other cities in Central Asia (Alexander et al., 2007;Darieva et al., 2012;Gentile and Tammaru, 2006), studies on post-socialist cities tend to remain geographically focused on Eastern and Central Europe. ...
Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Kazakhstan are all major destinations for labour migrants from rural areas of southern Kyrgyzstan. Along with searching for better income, younger men and women also migrate for educational purposes; children and elderly people stay behind. While older migrants often regard this separation from their families as temporary, younger people start to put down roots in places other than their homes and this has long-term consequences for development in rural areas. The paper therefore looks into families’ multi-local settings and why young migrants fail to return home. It also considers the potential impact on rural development including remittance dependency, an increasing shortage of qualified labour and new conditions of social care. The paper concludes with an assessment of the policy implications.
The dissolution of the USSR and the transition from a planned to a market economy gave rise to significant changes across all areas of people’s daily lives in Kyrgyzstan. These processes have influenced its social institutions through an effect on household survival strategies. The purpose of this article is to identify differences and similarities in the means of survival chosen by Kyrgyz and Russian households. Employment, income, and expenses are important components of budget planning that affect the saving behaviour of household members. A qualitative method – a semi-structured interview – along with statistical data, was used to identify differences and similarities in the behaviour of Kyrgyz and Russian households, especially regarding their attitude to loans and social networks. The findings highlight the attitudes of different generations of households in contrasting cultural settings to these components.
Bağımsızlık sonrası Kırgızistan’da gerçekleşen sosyalist ekonomik sistemden liberal ekonomik sisteme geçiş süreci, ülkedeki tarımsal ve kolektif işletmelerin kapanması, kırsal alandaki toprak kıtlığı ve işsizlik ülkede iç ve dış göçü tetiklemiştir. Bazı insanlar iş bulma umuduyla Rusya’ya göç ederken, ülke içinde kalan insanlar için Bişkek göç merkezi haline gelmiştir. İç göçle artan kent nüfusunun konut ihtiyaçlarının karşılanmaması sonucu Bişkek çevresi gecekondulaşırken, belli bir kesim ise dış göçmenler tarafından aktarılan dövizlerle aldıkları ayrıcalıklı konutlara taşınmaktadır. Bu gelişmeler Sovyet Birliği’nin dağılmasının ardından Bişkek kentinin kentsel alanlarının büyük bir değişime uğrayarak yeniden şekillenmesine neden olmuş ve mekânsal ayrışmayı kaçınılmaz hale getirmiştir. Sosyalizm sonrası ortaya çıkan yoksul mahallelerin yanı sıra yeni elit yerleşim alanları Bişkek kentindeki mekânsal ayrışmanın en belirgin örnekleridir. Bu bağlamda göç hareketlerinin göç eden birey üzerinde etkisi olduğu kadar göç alan kentsel alanın değişim ve dönüşüm süreci üzerinde de önemli etkileri olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı bağımsızlık sonrası Kırgızistan’ın benimsediği neo-liberal politikalar sonucu gerçekleşen iç ve dış göçün ülkenin sanayi ve kültür merkezi olan Bişkek kentinde ortaya çıkan mekânsal ayrışma üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektir.
In this paper, I describe the experience of rural-urban migration amongst herders to Ulaanbaatar’s ger-districts. I show how this problematises conventional notions of rural-urban migration and suggests a particular form of urbanisation in Mongolia. Following one particular household as they move from the countryside to the city, I show how for many new migrants adaptation to urban life is tied to the transposition of existing skills – and the learning of new skills – in the new urban context. I also show some of the more problematic aspects of life in the ger-districts, including the devaluation of herding skills and the existential impact of deskilment on gender and identity. In the process, I develop a phenomenologically-grounded political-economy of skill, whereby social, economic, and political change can be traced at the level of human embodiment and polydirectional experiences of enskilment and deskilment.
The article aims to compare the conditions of migrants from Central Asia into Russia with that of migrants from the Maghreb into France. Despite many similarities in conditions (related to the experience of social exclusion), there are deep differences. The precarious legal status of the majority of Central Asian newcomers in Russia has prevented them from embarking on an effective struggle for public recognition; this is in sharp contrast with North African newcomers in France who have been engaged in such struggle since the 1980s. In addition, Islam plays different roles in the migrants’ perceptions by host societies and in identification of the migrants themselves. Whereas Islam has become a marker of overarching collective identity among the Maghreb migrants’ descendants, this is not the case with Central Asians in Russia, for whom Islam remains part of their individual identity, rather than the basis of social consolidation and political mobilization.
This article explores the intersections of theory and community knowledge, experiences and imagination to illustrate how Kyrgyzstan’s informal settlements contest both normative politics and current global security practices. Instead of viewing informal settlements or the Kyrgyzstani state as disparate objects on and by which security is respectively imposed and enacted, how security differences are pronounced, circulated, resisted and reformulated through Rancièrian politics is examined. In this process, the Kyrgyz community-relational concept of yntymak is brought forth as a vital practice of organization and place-making in and against adversarial attempts at governance. Reconfiguring politics around specific community practices exposes the utilitarian shortcomings of neoliberal governance methods and typical conceptions of security.
This chapter explores the changing spatial histories of the Kyrgyz border town of Karakol, situated in the north-eastern part of Kyrgyzstan bordering China and Kazakhstan. It contributes to the debates on the construction and perception of geographical landscapes, and the local populations’ accommodation to imperial and international borders at different moments in history (Bassin, Mark. 1991. Russia between Europe and Asia: The Ideological Construction of Geographical Space. Slavic Review 50: 1–17). The concept of spatial history opens up a perspective that allows us to explore the different historical positionality of Karakol as a borderland town dependent on changes in investments, migration, and political attention, which affect forms of connectivity. We can explore the historical shifts in Karakol’s position as a borderland town, looking at both its actual political and economic position, and its position as conceptualized by those who live there.
Religion and ethnicity are inextricably linked in discourse within and about Central Asia. One common narrative suggests that as a result of differences between historically sedentary and nomadic populations, ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks are naturally more religious and more likely to radicalize than their Kazakh and Kyrgyz neighbors. Using extensive data available from the Pew Research Center’s 2012 The World’s Muslims survey, this study examines whether such claims stand up to empirical scrutiny. The data cast doubt on simplified versions of this discourse and suggest that future analyses should focus attention on individual-level explanations rather than potentially essentializing group-based narratives.
This article focuses on a recent development in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, described by its urban population as a ruralization process. I explore what it means to call something or someone ‘rural’ or ‘urban’, and I compare the social category of ‘rural people’ with the social category of the (old) urban intelligentsia. This includes an analysis and reconsideration of the traditional ‘nature–culture dichotomy’ and its meaning for the architecture and urban planning of Yerevan. It also interrogates the classification of people into newcomers from the countryside, urban dwellers, new elites, and young men called rabiz.
Much has changed since Frunze was renamed Bishkek in 1991 and became the capital of independent Kyrgyzstan. Though it was once considered to be among the ‘greenest’ and most ‘orderly’ cities of the Soviet Union, today many of its long-term residents complain about the new settlements (novostroiki) that have emerged during the last two decades. To Bishkek's urbanites, the recent arrival of migrants is not associated with an escape from rural poverty and a rightful struggle for civic rights, but indicates a massive cultural and aesthetic degradation of familiar urban life. In this article, beyond contesting narratives of cosmopolitan nostalgia vs. legitimate belonging, I investigate how urban practitioners in fact produce and deal with different spaces in the city. My ethnographic accounts not only identify social avoidance as an essential pulse of Bishkek's current rhythm, but also illustrate that after a period of post-rural socialization previously stigmatized migrants may manage to smoothly blend into urban spatial flows and lifestyles.
Purpose
– Moral values and behavioural codes that governed the urban life and the appropriation of urban spaces changed significantly in Baku over the last two decades leading to conflicts over the right behaviour in the city and about the question who has the right to set the rules in public spaces. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current political as well as social rules that govern the public spaces in Baku and how they are discussed in order that the city should appear “European” in contrast to “oriental”.
Design/methodology/approach
– The author focuses on everyday practices of people acting in the public sphere, how they use the space and which discussions emerge around different behaviour in public places. The paper is based on observations and interviews the author made between August 2010 and May 2012.
Findings
– The paper shows new ways of appropriation of public space and dealing with social as well as official control.
Originality/value
– The paper presents new research on a quickly changing post-Soviet city.
Purpose – This paper aims to problematise the relation between “legality” and the state, through a case study analysis of law at work within the built environment. In doing so, the paper argues that studies on law and geography should consider the broader processes of state “law making” to understand the production of illegal space.
Design/methodology/approach – The liminal boundary of illegal/legal and its relation with the state is developed through a case study on the legalisation process of a “squatter” settlement located on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The paper draws on primary qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) and legal analysis undertaken in Kyrgyzstan at various times over seven months between 2011 and 2013.
Findings – Examining law as static and pre-existing is problematic in developing an understanding of the production of illegal and legal spaces within the built environment. An emphasis on law-making and the process of legalisation draws attention to the different groups, practices and policies involved and reframes the relation between the state and legality.
Originality/value – Using a case study anchoring the analysis within law’s constitutive and contested presence within the built environment, the paper addresses a theoretical and empirical panacea in legal geography by unpacking the “legal” with reference to its plurality internally within the state. Moreover, studies on law and geography have tended to focus on European or North American contexts, whereas this paper draws on data from Central Asia.
This article takes as its focus post-Soviet Bishkek and explores the arrival to the city of a Kyrgyz migrant population and the perceptions of and reactions to this migrant population on the side of long-term residents (predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz [Russian-speaking], ethnic Russian, and other Russian-speaking communities). The article explores the way migrants are constructed and represented in the language of long-term residents. The data reveals an anti-migration discourse on the side of the long-term residents as the migrants are identified as culturally (e.g. not ‘urban’); linguistically (e.g. Kyrgyz speaking having poor Russian); and behaviourally (e.g. uncivilised) as not being part of their past, present or future vision of Bishkek. The article looks also at the ways in which migrants themselves perceive their position in Bishkek. Their narratives highlight the diversity present amongst the migrant population, and demonstrate a counter-representation of themselves and their place within a changing city, which in its very pragmatism and realism, contests the simplistic representation favoured by the long-term residents. The article reveals important insights into emerging notions of both urban identity and Kyrgyz identity in the post-Soviet period, where linguistic and ethnic boundaries become blurred and moveable and new categories of inclusion and exclusion are constructed.
Since independence, Kyrgyzstani leaders have used Islamic identity as a tool for nation-building. While embracing Islam as a marker of Kyrgyz nationhood, however, they have simultaneously sought to limit its role in political life. The resulting discourse draws a sharp dichotomy between “good”, “local” forms of Islam and “bad”, “foreign” manifestations. Unfortunately, the latter, “bad” forms are frequently linked to Kyrgyzstan's largest minority population: ethnic Uzbeks. Drawing on, and adding insights to, the theory of securitisation forwarded by the Copenhagen School of security studies, this article examines how and why religion and ethnicity have become intertwined in Kyrgyzstani discourse.
This article explores the relationship between memory and place in understandings of urban change in Central Asia. Drawing on narratives of long-term residents of two Central Asian cities we investigate the ways in which positive memories of the Soviet past emerge when people speak about the urban environment of today. We explore why such fondness for the Soviet past has emerged, what elements of the past are most cherished, and which urban communities remember these elements. We ask what these forms of memory reveal about what has been lost and what this tells us about the present anxieties of urban residents.
This introductory article of a special issue outlines the general theoretical background, formulates principles for a continuum of hot and cold ethnicities, gives a brief characterisation of the interethnic developments after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and provides an overview of the papers. This collection of contributions deals with a variety of case studies with a particular focus on the strength of members' emotional attachment to their group. Such a division of ethnicities can be categorised into two prototypes: ‘hot’ and ‘cold’. A ‘hot’ ethnic group is one whose members have a high emotional attachment to their group. ‘Cold’ ethnic groups are those whose members' emotional attachment to the groups is low, absent or latent.
This paper explores the identity and the social/political behaviour of Russians in post-Soviet Central Asia through a comparison with the Baltic countries via a ‘hot and cold ethnicity’ paradigm. Central Asian Russians are more likely, ceteris paribus, to be found at the ‘cold’ end of the spectrum of ‘ethnic temperatures‘. The article starts with outlining the historical roots of a specific Russians' self-designation in the ‘imperial peripheries’ – that is, a lowered attachment to their ethnic group as compared with loyalties towards the state. However, patterns of imperial penetration into different territories of the former USSR (FSU) were different, and so were the sociopolitical conditions under which Russians have found themselves after the collapse of the FSU. Due to this, patterns of Russians’ self-designation turned out to be quite divergent: Central Asia represents a contrasting pattern in comparison with the Baltics. Subsequent parts of the paper contain a more detailed analysis of the reasons behind a relatively ‘cold’ ethnic stance of Russians in Central Asia. These reasons include the salience of sociocultural boundaries versus ethnic ones, the nature of local political regimes, the role of Russian language and culture, official and popular interpretation of the Soviet past and attitudes towards the present-day Russia.
Using data from nationally representative public opinion surveys done in 2005 in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the authors focus on the titular groups as well as the Russians in both countries and provide assessments of their perceived ethnic commonalities with one another and with various other ethnic groups, including Uzbeks and Jews in each country. The results indicate that there are hierarchies of intergroup differentiations that help to delineate the boundaries of ethnic identities in both countries. Multivariate analyses show the systematic effects of regional variables in shaping these ethnic boundaries. The basic topographies of the boundaries are consistent with the effects of social identification processes and the relative power and social standings of the different target ethnic groups across the regions. Our results lend clear support to the ethnic boundaries paradigm by underscoring that ethnic boundaries can be independent of objective commonalities and can vary according to contexts.
Building upon recent studies in the field of citizenship and transnationalism, this article examines the relations that Kyrgyzstani migrants in Kazakhstan and Russia entertain with their homeland, both in terms of concrete status (rights and responsibilities) and subjective attitudes (feeling of membership and loyalty). The article relies on field research, including semi-structured interviews, conducted in March and April 2007. Findings show that Kyrgyzstani migrants have developed a distinctive and somewhat paradoxical relation to their state of origin, in which pragmatic interest and long-term loyalty are not easily reconciled.
Internal and international labour migration is a main livelihood strategy for many people in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the employable population of Kyrgyzstan is working abroad. However, current labour migration phenomena are not exceptional since Central Asia's history has always been characterized by the movement of people, including external and internal, forced and voluntary, legal and illegal, permanent and temporary, ethnically or economically motivated migration. This article gives an overview of the historical and present migration processes with a special focus on three village communities in rural Kyrgyzstan. It deals with the opportunities and difficulties with which labour migrants and their non-migrating family members are confronted today. The results are based on extensive field work in Kyrgyzstan.
Within the context of Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, this article deals with an identity boundary between the so-called ‘urban’ Kyrgyz and Russians on the one side, and the so-called ‘rural’ or ‘newly arriving’ Kyrgyz, on the other. In the first section I discuss the ways in which this boundary is constructed among Bishkek male youth, both rhetorically as well as with regard to actual practices of social inclusion and exclusion. Starting from these insights on what ‘makes’ an urban identity, I try to approach the question of why this boundary might be drawn as it is. Linking a theory on ‘group size’ with migration data for Kyrgyzstan and the concept of ‘opportunity structure’, I try to examine the allocation and accessibility of opportunities such as jobs, marriage and living space – all of which can be considered to affect the current divide between ethnic Kyrgyz in Bishkek.
Most research on labour migration from Central Asia has explored the motivations and strategies of those who move. Comparatively less attention has been given to the experience of family members who stay behind. This paper draws on ethnographic research amongst the wives of migrant husbands in a site of gendered out-migration in eastern Uzbekistan to explore diverse experiences of ‘staying put’. Whilst spousal absence is experienced by some women as expanding the possibilities for social and spatial mobility, for others it can exacerbate the degree of control exerted by in-laws. Through this ethnography the author argues for a relational politics of mobility: that is, attention to the ways in which the movement of some can constrain (or compel) the mobility of others. Gendered out-migration is both embedded in, and transforms, the domestic organization of honour (nomus), in ways that are socially consequential. In Central Asia, the author argues, a richer understanding of labour migration can be gained by bringing different scales of movement into the same analytical frame and by attending ethnographically to the habitual production of place.
This article compares causes and mechanisms of the mass mobilizations which took place in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and 2010. The upheavals of 2005, the so called “Tulip Revolution,” led to the ousting of President Akaev who was replaced by Kurmanbek Bakiev. In 2010, Bakiev himself had to flee the country after violent social upheavals. As this analysis shows, the causes for both series of events were similar: neopatrimonial rule and the elite's control of resources together with oppressive tactics stirred up discontent among wide parts of the population and instigated violent protest. The mechanisms of mass mobilization, however, differed considerably. While the revolution of 2005 was carried out as the concerted action of varied political forces and NGOs, which, supported by patronage networks and traditional institutions, offered material and solidary incentives for the crowds, the great mass of people who took part in the 2010 protests were spontaneously mobilized through purposive incentives when news of the killings spread through the media.
This article seeks to extend the scope of existing literature on migration in Kyrgyzstan by revealing the material and moral assessment of labour migration and remittances amongst the people of Sopu Korgon, a village in Southern Kyrgyzstan. Remittances perform important social roles in sustaining social relations, making absent migrants ‘present’, gaining and/or retaining social status, passing through rites of passage and fostering the emergence of a new wealthy elite. Drawing on ethnographic research, the author examines the ambivalent opinions that surround the issue of migration and explores the idioms through which family absence is justified. The author argues that in addition to the important social functions of remittances, migrants' transfers in Sopu Korgon also help immediate family members to remain in the village and sustain their lives there. This in turn suggests that migrants' money ‘slows up time’ for other family members, delaying their own need to migrate.
Our survey uses a nationwide sample and questions specifically designed to gauge subtle prejudice with reference to specific ethnic groups. In other words, the questions and sample are constructed in order to allow us to see how members of each major ethnic group in Kyrgyzstan relate to one another. We cross-tabulate the results with answers to the questions of (1) how much in common Kyrgyzstanis have with various ethnic groups and (2) how favorably or unfavorably they view each of the major ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan. Our hypothesis is that, if our social distance scale is valid, there should exist a correlation between it and commonality as well as favorability. In other words, if respondents say they will not accept someone from a particular ethnic group into a closer relationship like kinship or a close friendship, they will tend to have little in common with or an unfavorable view of the "typical member" of that ethnic group.
Book description: Capturing a unique historical moment, this book examines the changes in urban life since the collapse of the Soviet Union from an ethnographic perspective, thus addressing significant gaps in the literature on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism.
It encompasses Tashkent, Almaty, Astana and Ulan-Ude: four cities with quite different responses to the fall of the Soviet Union. Each chapter takes a theme of central significance across this huge geographical terrain, addresses it through one city and contextualizes it by reference to the other sites in this volume. The structure of the book moves from nostalgia and memories of the Soviet past to examine how current changes are being experienced and imagined through the shifting materialities, temporalities and political economies of urban life. Privatization is giving rise to new social geographies, while ethnic and religious sensibilities are creating emergent networks of sacred sites. But, however much ideologies are changing, cities also provide a constant lived mnemonic of lost configurations of ideology and practice, acting as signposts to bankrupted futures. Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia provides a detailed account of the changing nature of urban life in post-Soviet Asia, clearly elucidating the centrality of these urban transformations to citizens’ understandings of their own socio-economic condition.
Trudovaya migratsiya v Respublike Uzbekistan: sotsial'nye, pravo-vye i gendernye aspekty. Tashkent: UNDP Program in Uzbekistan Introduction Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia
- Evgeniy Abdullayev
- Alexander
- Victor Catherine
- Buchli
Abdullayev, Evgeniy, ed. Trudovaya migratsiya v Respublike Uzbekistan: sotsial'nye, pravo-vye i gendernye aspekty. Tashkent: UNDP Program in Uzbekistan, 2008. Print. Alexander, Catherine, and Victor Buchli. " Introduction. " Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. Eds. Catherine Alexander, Victor Buchli, and Caroline Humphrey. London: UCL, 2007. 1–39.
Kyrgyz Ethnicity Issues: North and South (in the Case of the Bishkek Peri-Urbans of Qelecheq and Qoq-Jar)
- Alymbaeva
Print. Alymbaeva, Aida. " Kyrgyz Ethnicity Issues: North and South (in the Case of the Bishkek Peri-Urbans of Qelecheq and Qoq-Jar). " Politics and Society Journal under the Kyrgyz National University, Bishkek 3 –4 (2006): 79– 102.
Central Asia's Island of Democracy Print. Bogatyrev, Valentin. Ozobennosti sovremennogo tranzita i problemy identichnosti: Istoriia i identichnost'. Bishkek: F. Ebert Foundation, 2007. Print. Brusina, Ol'ga Kirgiziia: sotsial'nie posledstvia argarnogo perenaseleniia
- John Anderson
- Kyrgyzstan
Anderson, John. Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy. London: Harwood Aca-demic Publishers, 1999. Print. Bogatyrev, Valentin. Ozobennosti sovremennogo tranzita i problemy identichnosti: Istoriia i identichnost'. Bishkek: F. Ebert Foundation, 2007. Print. Brusina, Ol'ga. " Kirgiziia: sotsial'nie posledstvia argarnogo perenaseleniia. " Ethnografiches-koe obozrenie 4 (1995): 96– 106.
Kyrgyz Migrants in the City of Moscow
- Doolotkeldiyeva
Print. Doolotkeldiyeva, Asel'. " Kyrgyz Migrants in the City of Moscow. " International Research, Society, Politics, Economics 1 (2009): 80 –93.
New Subjects and Situated Interdependence After Privatization in Ulan-Ude Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia
- Humphrey
Print. Humphrey, Caroline. " New Subjects and Situated Interdependence. After Privatization in Ulan-Ude. " Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. Eds. Catherine Alexander, Victor Buchli, and Caroline Humphrey. London: UCL, 2007. 175 – 207.
The Permanence of the " Frostbelt " in Post-Soviet Russia: Migrant Attraction to the Cities in Irkutsk Oblast
- Iyer
- Seema
Print. Iyer, Seema. " The Permanence of the " Frostbelt " in Post-Soviet Russia: Migrant Attraction to the Cities in Irkutsk Oblast 1997 – 2003.
Deti imperii " v postsovetskoi Tsentral'noi Azii: adaptivnie praktiki I mental'nie sdvigi (russkie v Kirgizii
- Kosmarskaya
- Natalya
Kosmarskaya, Natalya. " Deti imperii " v postsovetskoi Tsentral'noi Azii: adaptivnie praktiki I mental'nie sdvigi (russkie v Kirgizii, 1992 –2002). Moscow: Natalis, 2006. Print.
Kyrgyzstan v tsifrakh 2005-2009: Naselenie, osnovnye demograficheskie pokazateli
Print. Kyrgyzstan v tsifrakh 2005-2009: Naselenie, osnovnye demograficheskie pokazateli. Web. 4 April 2011.
As Work Dries Up, Central Asian Migrants Return Home Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty Web. 16 Feburary Naselenie Kyrgyzstana. Itogi pervoi natsional'noi perepisi naseleniia Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki 1999 roda v tablitsakh Migranty v zone krizisa
- F Najibullah
Print. Najibullah, F. " As Work Dries Up, Central Asian Migrants Return Home. " Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. 10 February 2009. Web. 16 Feburary 2009. Naselenie Kyrgyzstana. Itogi pervoi natsional'noi perepisi naseleniia Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki 1999 roda v tablitsakh. Bishkek: National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, 2000. Print. Olimova, Saodat, and Musaffar Olimov. " Migranty v zone krizisa. " Druzhba narodov. 7 (2010). Web. 20 October 2011.
Tat'yana. Bezzashchitnaia sobstvennost
- Orlova
Orlova, Tat'yana. Bezzashchitnaia sobstvennost', 21 May 2010. Web. 23 March 2011.
Po tu storonu ekonomicheskogo determinizma: mikrodinamika migratsii iz sel'skogo Kyrgyzstana Staying Put? Towards a Relational Politics of Mobility at a Time of Migration
- Reeves
- Madeleine
Reeves, Madeleine. " Po tu storonu ekonomicheskogo determinizma: mikrodinamika migratsii iz sel'skogo Kyrgyzstana. " Neprikosnovennyi zapas 4 (2009). Web. 13 March 2011. ——. " Staying Put? Towards a Relational Politics of Mobility at a Time of Migration. " Central Asian Survey 30.3 – 4 (2011): 555– 576.
Russkie novogo zarubezh'ya: vybor sud'by. Moscow: Nauka, 2001. Print. Schmidt, Matthias, and Lira Sagynbekova Migration Past and Present: Changing Patterns in Kyrgyzstan
- Savoskul
- Sergey
Savoskul, Sergey. Russkie novogo zarubezh'ya: vybor sud'by. Moscow: Nauka, 2001. Print. Schmidt, Matthias, and Lira Sagynbekova. " Migration Past and Present: Changing Patterns in Kyrgyzstan. " Central Asian Survey 27.2 (2008): 111– 127.
Samozakhvaty zemli – sotsial'noe bedstvie Kyrgyzstana. On-line project " Open Kyrgyzstan
- Timirbaev
- Vyacheslav
Print. Timirbaev, Vyacheslav. Samozakhvaty zemli – sotsial'noe bedstvie Kyrgyzstana. On-line project " Open Kyrgyzstan. " Web. 17 March 2007.
Astana: traditsionnyi gorod ili katalizator peremen?
- Zabirova
- Aygul
Print. Zabirova, Aygul. " Astana: traditsionnyi gorod ili katalizator peremen?. " Tsentral'naya Aziya i Kavkaz 5 (2002): 195 –202.
Uzbekskie obshchiny v Rossii: novye " diaspory Moscow: Institut etnologii i antropo-logii, 2010. Print. Nationalities Papers
- ——
Print. ——. Uzbekskie obshchiny v Rossii: novye " diaspory. " Moscow: Institut etnologii i antropo-logii, 2010. Print. Nationalities Papers
Novaya russkaya diaspora. Moscow: Institut etnologii I antropologii
- Natalya Lebedeva
Itogi pervoi natsional'noi perepisi naseleniia Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki 1999 roda v tablitsakh
- Naselenie Kyrgyzstana
Bezzashchitnaia sobstvennost
- Orlova
- Tat 'yana
Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy
- John Anderson
Russkie novogo zarubezh'ya: vybor sud'by
- Sergey Savoskul
Postsovetskie transformatsii: otrazheniye v migratsiakh
- Za 'onchkovskaya
- Galina Zhanna
- Vitkovskaya
Trudovaya migratsiya v Respublike Uzbekistan: sotsial'nye, pravovye i gendernye aspekty. Tashkent: UNDP Program in Uzbekistan
- Evgeniy Abdullayev
Ozobennosti sovremennogo tranzita i problemy identichnosti: Istoriia i identichnost'. Bishkek: F. Ebert Foundation
- Bogatyrev Valentin
Naselenie, osnovnye demograficheskie pokazateli
- Kyrgyzstan V Tsifrakh
City of Migrants. Contemporary Ulan-Ude in the Context of Russian Migration.”Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia
- Galina Manzanova
Zhenshchiny — trudovye migranty iz Tadzhikistana
- Zotova
Migranty v zone krizisa
- Olimova
Samozakhvaty zemli - sotsial'noe bedstvie Kyrgyzstana. On-line project “Open Kyrgyzstan
- Timirbaev Vyacheslav
Po tu storonu ekonomicheskogo determinizma: mikrodinamika migratsii iz sel'skogo Kyrgyzstana
- Reeves
Astana: traditsionnyi gorod ili katalizator peremen?
- Zabirova
As Work Dries Up, Central Asian Migrants Return Home
- Najibullah
Introduction” 312) for a discussion of the body of research using quantitative approaches to understand contemporary Central Asian migration
- See Reeves
K voprosu o urbanizatsii Kyrgyzstana
- Alymbaeva