Immobility and the Re-imaginings of Ethnic Identity among Mongolian Kazakhs in the 21st Century
Abstract
Accompanying the dissolution of the USSR and the formation of new nation states in the 1990s, nearly
half of Mongolian Kazakhs migrated from their adopted home of Mongolia to the imagined homeland
of Kazakhstan. By 2000, a sizable percentage returned to Mongolia. In explaining their decisions to stay
in or to return to Mongolia, the Kazakhs we interviewed cite several culturally specific factors. Place
identities, as expressed through cultural elements of religiosity, kinship ties, and language versatility,
tie Mongolian Kazakhs strongly to western Mongolia while meta-narratives about diaspora and homeland
prescribe identity with Kazakhstan. Utilizing life history interviews, participant observation, and questionnaire
data we argue that Mongolian Kazakhs actively employ narratives of their cultural history to
re-create and re-establish place identities in Mongolia and ultimately re-imagine Mongolian-Kazakh
community and identity. These recreated place identities have emerged among Mongolian-Kazakhs
who chose to remain immobile or return migrated from the ‘homeland’ of Kazakhstan.
DOI
2015Department
AnthropologyCollections
Citation
Barcus, Holly; Werner, Cynthia (2015). Immobility and the Re-imaginings of Ethnic Identity among Mongolian Kazakhs in the 21st Century. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /154303.
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