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Explaining Kazakhstani identity: supraethnic identity, ethnicity, language, and citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Kristoffer Michael Rees  and
Nora Webb Williams
Kristoffer Michael Rees*
Affiliation:
Political Science, Indiana University East, Richmond, IN, USA
Nora Webb Williams
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The demographic composition of Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union presented a dilemma to the new Kazakhstani government: Should it advance a Kazakh identity as paramount, possibly alienating the large non-Kazakh population? Or should it advocate for a non-ethnicized national identity? How would those decisions be made in light of global norms of liberal multiculturalism? And, critically, would citizens respond to new frames of identity? This paper provides an empirical look at supraethnic identity-building in Kazakhstan – that is, at the development of a national identity that individuals place above or alongside their ethnic identification. We closely examine the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan to describe how Kazakhstani policies intersect with theories of nationalism and nation-building. We then use ordered probit models to analyze data from a 2014 survey to examine how citizens of Kazakhstan associate with a “Kazakhstani” supraethnic identity. Our findings suggest that despite the Assembly of People's rhetoric, there are still significant barriers to citizen-level adoption of a supraethnic identity in Kazakhstan, particularly regarding language. However, many individuals do claim an association with Kazakhstani identity, especially those individuals who strongly value citizenship in the abstract.

Keywords

supraethnic identityethnicitylanguagecitizenshipKazakhstan
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 815 - 839
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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