Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:28:53.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exploring “North” and “South” in post-Soviet Bishkek: Discourses and perceptions of rural-urban migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Moya Flynn  and
Natalya Kosmarskaya
Moya Flynn*
Affiliation:
Central and East European Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
Natalya Kosmarskaya
Affiliation:
Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
*
∗Corresponding author. Email: Moya.Flynn@glasgow.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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”.

Keywords

migrationurbanruralidentityKyrgyzstanBishkek
Type
Special Section: The Autonomy of Minority Literature
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 453 - 471
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdullayev, Evgeniy, ed. Trudovaya migratsiya v Respublike Uzbekistan: sotsial'nye, pravovye i gendernye aspekty. Tashkent: UNDP Program in Uzbekistan, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Alexander, Catherine, and Buchli, Victor. “Introduction.” Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. Eds. Alexander, Catherine, Buchli, Victor, and Humphrey, Caroline. London: UCL, 2007. 1–39. Print.Google Scholar
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. Print.Google Scholar
Alymbaeva, Aida. “K voprosu o urbanizatsii Kyrgyzstana.” Voprosy istorii Kyrgyzstana 1 (2008): 65–77. Print.Google Scholar
Anderson, John. Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy. London: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Bogatyrev, Valentin. Ozobennosti sovremennogo tranzita i problemy identichnosti: Istoriia i identichnost'. Bishkek: F. Ebert Foundation, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Brusina, Ol'ga. “Kirgiziia: sotsial'nie posledstvia argarnogo perenaseleniia.” Ethnograficheskoe obozrenie 4 (1995): 96–106. Print.Google Scholar
Doolotkeldiyeva, Asel'. “Kyrgyz Migrants in the City of Moscow.” International Research, Society, Politics, Economics 1 (2009): 80–93. Print.Google Scholar
Faranda, Regina, and Nolle, David. “Ethnic Social Distance in Kyrgyzstan: Evidence from a Nationwide Opinion Survey.” Nationalities Papers 32.2 (2003): 177–210. Print.Google Scholar
Faranda, Regina and Nolle, David. “Boundaries of Ethnic Identity in Central Asia: Titular and Russian Perceptions of Ethnic Commonalities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34.4 (2011): 620–642. Print.Google Scholar
Humphrey, Caroline. “New Subjects and Situated Interdependence. After Privatization in Ulan-Ude.” Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. Eds. Alexander, Catherine, Buchli, Victor, and Humphrey, Caroline. London: UCL, 2007. 175–207. Print.Google Scholar
Ilkhamov, Alisher. “Impoverishment of the Masses in the Transition Period: Signs of an Emerging ‘New Poor’ Identity in Uzbekistan.” Central Asian Survey 20.1 (2001): 33–54. Print.Google Scholar
Isabaeva, Eliza. “Leaving to Enable Others to Remain: Remittances and New Moral Economies of Migration in Southern Kyrgyzstan.” Central Asian Survey 30.3–4 (2011): 541–554. Print.Google Scholar
Iyer, Seema. “The Permanence of the “Frostbelt” in Post-Soviet Russia: Migrant Attraction to the Cities in Irkutsk Oblast 1997–2003.” Migration, Homeland and Belonging in Eurasia. Eds. Buckley, Cynthia, and Ruble, Blair. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2008. 123–60. Print.Google Scholar
Kolstoe, Paul. Russians in the Former Soviet Republics. London: Hurst and Company, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Kosmarskaya, Natalya. “Deti imperii” v postsovetskoi Tsentral'noi Azii: adaptivnie praktiki I mental'nie sdvigi (russkie v Kirgizii, 1992–2002). Moscow: Natalis, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Kostyukova, Irina. “The Towns of Kyrgyzstan Change their Faces: Rural–Urban Migrants in Bishkek.” Central Asian Survey 13.3 (1994): 425–434. Print.Google Scholar
Kyrgyzstan v tsifrakh 2005–2009: Naselenie, osnovnye demograficheskie pokazateli. Web. 4 April 2011.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. Identity Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998. Print.Google Scholar
Lebedeva, Natalya. Novaya russkaya diaspora. Moscow: Institut etnologii I antropologii, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Manzanova, Galina. “City of Migrants. Contemporary Ulan-Ude in the Context of Russian Migration.” Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. Eds. Alexander, Catherine, Buchli, Victor, and Humphrey, Caroline. London: UCL, 2007. 125–135. Print.Google Scholar
Najibullah, F. “As Work Dries Up, Central Asian Migrants Return Home.” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. 10 February 2009. Web. 16 Feburary 2009.Google Scholar
Kyrgyzstana, Naselenie. Itogi pervoi natsional'noi perepisi naseleniia Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki 1999 roda v tablitsakh. Bishkek: National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Olimova, Saodat, and Olimov, Musaffar. “Migranty v zone krizisa.” Druzhba narodov. 7 (2010). Web. 20 October 2011.Google Scholar
Orlova, Tat'yana. Bezzashchitnaia sobstvennost', 21 May 2010. Web. 23 March 2011.Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. “Po tu storonu ekonomicheskogo determinizma: mikrodinamika migratsii iz sel'skogo Kyrgyzstana.” Neprikosnovennyi zapas 4 (2009). Web. 13 March 2011.Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. “Staying Put? Towards a Relational Politics of Mobility at a Time of Migration.” Central Asian Survey 30.3–4 (2011): 555–576. Print.Google Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. “Introduction: Contested Trajectories and a Dynamic Approach to Place.” Central Asian Survey 30.3–4 (2011): 307–330. Print.Google Scholar
Ruget, Vanessa, and Usmanalieva, Burul. “Citizenship, Migration and Loyalty towards the State: A Case Study of the Kyrgyzstani Migrants Working in Russia and Kazakhstan.” Central Asian Survey 27.2 (2008): 129–141. Print.Google Scholar
Savoskul, Sergey. Russkie novogo zarubezh'ya: vybor sud'by. Moscow: Nauka, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Matthias, and Sagynbekova, Lira. “Migration Past and Present: Changing Patterns in Kyrgyzstan.” Central Asian Survey 27.2 (2008): 111–127. Print.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Philipp. “Urbanising Bishkek: Interrelations of Boundaries, Migration, Group Size and Opportunity Structure.” Central Asian Survey 29.4 (2010): 453–467. Print.Google Scholar
Sotsial'no-ekonomicheskoe polozhenie Kyrgyzskoi Respubliki Ianvar'-Iuil'. Bishkek: National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Svodnyi tom s nekotorimi itogami poslevoennykh perepisei naseleniia. Bishkek: National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyzstan, 1992. Print.Google Scholar
Temirkulov, Azamat. “Kyrgyz ‘revolutions’ in 2005 and 2010: Comparative Analysis of Mass Mobilization.” Nationalities Papers 38.5 (2010): 589–600. Print.Google Scholar
Timirbaev, Vyacheslav. Samozakhvaty zemli — sotsial'noe bedstvie Kyrgyzstana. On-line project “Open Kyrgyzstan.” Web. 17 March 2007.Google Scholar
Yessenova, Saulesh. “Routes and Roots of Kazakh Identity: Urban Migration in Postsocialist Kazakstan.” The Russian Review 64 (2005): 661–679. Print.Google Scholar
Zabirova, Aygul. “Astana: traditsionnyi gorod ili katalizator peremen?.” Tsentral'naya Aziya i Kavkaz 5 (2002): 195–202. Print.Google Scholar
Za'onchkovskaya, Zhanna, and Vitkovskaya, Galina, eds. Postsovetskie transformatsii: otrazheniye v migratsiakh. Moscow: Adamant Publishing House, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Zotova, Natalya. “Zhenshchiny — trudovye migranty iz Tadzhikistana.” Acta Eurazica 2 (2007): 72–87. Print.Google Scholar
Zotova, Natalya. Uzbekskie obshchiny v Rossii: novye “diaspory.” Moscow: Institut etnologii i antropologii, 2010. Print.Google Scholar