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Despite economic growth in Kazakhstan, more than 80 per cent of Kazakhstan's ethnic Germans have emigrated to Germany to date. Disappointing experiences of the migrants, along with other aspects of life in Germany, have been transmitted through transnational networks to ethnic Germans still living in Kazakhstan. Consequently, Germans in Kazakhstan today feel more alienated than ever from their 'historic homeland'. This book explores the interplay of those memories, social networks and state policies, which play a role in the 'construction' of a Kazakhstani German identity.
List of contents
List of Maps, Figures, Illustrations and Tables
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Kazakhstani Germans and the Study of Nationalities in Central Asia
Concepts of Ethnicity
Based on Cultural Grounds - Ethnicity as a Resource - Categorization and Power - A Product of Individual Life Experience - Ethnic Boundaries as Cultural Schemas
Fieldwork in Taldykorgan
PART I: MEMORIES, HISTORIES AND LIFE STORIES Chapter 1. Memories and Histories
Shifting Memories of the Past
The Deportation of 1941 - Discrimination against Germans - Transition and Continuity - The Hard-Working German
The Russian Empire: Colonization of the Kazakh Steppe
The Russian Empire: the Settlers from the German States
The Soviet Union: Concepts of Nation and Nationality
The Soviet Union: Its Formation and Nationality Policies
National Delineation - Collectivization - Facing the Menace of the German Reich: The Passport System and Deportations - The Kazakh SSR after 1945
Kazakhstan: The Formation of a Nation-State and the Role of Nationality
'Kazakhization' - Language Policies - Kazakhstani Identity - Kazakhstani Germans
Chapter 2. The Enmeshment of Identities and Life Stories
The Truth of Life Stories
Four Life Stories, Four Identity Types
Soviet Identity - Kazakhstani Identity - Russian German Identity - Kazakhstani German Identity
Summary
PART II: NATIONALITY, POWER AND CHANGE Chapter 3. Assessing Nationality
Nationality as a Unifier of Territorial Belonging, Language, Religion
and 'Mentality'
Common Ancestry - Language - Religion - 'Mentality'
National Dichotomies
Kazakh Primordialism vs. Russian Constructionism
Kazakhs' Esteem - Russians' Inclusiveness
Normative Entanglements
Summary
Chapter 4. Everyday Nationality in the Kazakh Nation-State
'The Friendship of Peoples-Is Our Wealth!'
Losing Language Hegemony
Identification: Strategies and Emotions
Kazakhstan as a Homeland
Summary
PART III: NON-MIGRANTS' SOCIAL TIES Migration and Social Networks Chapter 5. Relations in the Locality: Ethnic Mixing and Missing Kazakhs
The Relevance of Nationality in Personal Networks
The Relevance of Nationality in Marriages
Is there a 'German Community' in Taldykorgan?
Summary
Chapter 6. Disruption in the Transnational Social Field
Relatives and Friends Abroad
Exodus to a 'Historic Homeland'
Views on Germany
Networks and Identity
Summary
PART IV: THE EFFECT OF TWO STATES' POLICIES OF 'GERMANNESS' ON KAZAKHSTANI GERMANS Chapter 7. Changing Transnational Institutions
The 'German House'
Support from Germany
Socializing with other Germans
A Parish in Transition from 'German' to 'Lutheran'
The German House in Transition
Summary
Chapter 8. The Divergent Ethnic Policies of Kazakhstan and Germany
The Kazakh State's Official Promotion of Interethnic Harmony
The German State's Contradictory Policies
Summary
Conclusion: Germans at Home in Kazakhstan
Identity and Memories
Identities and Identifications
Friendship of the Peoples?
Exclusion through Inclusion: The Role of Personal and Institutional Links to Germany
References
Appendix
About the author
Rita Sanders is a Research Project Member at the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne. She has worked as a lecturer at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
