| dc.description.abstract | Beginning in 1992, the newly independent government of Kazakhstan has facilitated the in-migration
of 944,000 Kazakhs from neighboring countries, with the majority migrating as family units. Using the post-Soviet
repatriation of Kazakhs as an example, we illustrate in this article how socially constituted notions about gender
and kinship help reinforce institutional and informal power structures that favor men at three different points in the
migration process: in making the decision to migrate, in dealing with the bureaucratic aspects of migration, and in
facing the consequences of migration. First, patriarchal power dynamics often mean that women have less influence
than men on the decision to migrate. Second, the legal framework for repatriation is based on an implicit assumption
that Kazakh households correspond to a patriarchal model, and this has financial consequences for women. Third,
transnational migration widens the physical separations from natal kin that women already experience due to
Kazakh kinship practices that emphasize patrilineal descent, clan-based exogamy, and patrilocal marriage. | en |
