Kazakhstan Report Two
Tyler Hoffman HUMN305-U4FF
Kate Davis
3/24/16

Kazakhstan, like many places around the world, is facing many different issues. Issues such as migration, religious needs, and women’s rights. All these factors make up large concerns for developing states and Kazakhstan is right in with them. Although they are taking steps to ensure that their culture and way of life will not be impacted by such things, but rather enhanced by them. By creating a more unified nation. Migration, immigration and emigration have played major roles in every country. Kazakhstan is no stranger to this. Kazakhstan is a country that evolved from all three of these. As a former nation of the Soviet Union, and being a neighbor to Russia, there is a large makeup of Russian people within Kazakhstan. In fact over two million people living in Kazakhstan are originally from Russia. This, of course, makes sense. As the collapse of the Soviet Union left people without jobs and income, they had to go elsewhere in order to try to make a living and with Kazakhstan, a nation that would now be developing, being so close it made sense for them to emigrate from Russia into Kazakhstan. Even though Russian is the largest demographic of immigrants in Kazakhstan, the country has a wide variety immigrants from other countries as well. Countries such as Germany, Ukraine and Uzbekistan make up three of the largest demographics in Kazakhstan (World Migration, 2015). Kazakhstan, even with its vast demographic is still well unpopulated. As seen in a 2009 census, the population was only at 16.4 million (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2010). Considering that Kazakhstan is roughly over one million square feet, this does prove to be a slight issue. Could there, however, be a reason for this? Could the Kazakh government be to blame? According to minority rights, people looking for jobs are required to have a fluency in Kazakh. This is due to the Kazakhization that arose when Kazakhstan gained their independence. The process of this “Kazakhization” has enacted language laws, such as needing to be fluent in Kazakh in order to obtain a job (Kazakhstan, n.d.). There also seems to be almost a hatred of the Slavic people. Most likely stemming from the years being under the control of the Soviet Union, who were Slavs. My reasoning for this is that Kazakhstan has almost entirely removed anyone who speaks Russian from government offices thanks to these new language laws (Kazakhstan, n.d.). What do I think about all this? While I understand that after gaining independence from another country one would want to make the country to have a better national identity made up of the authentic Kazakh people, I do not believe that almost ostracizing the people who have been living in the country to be a correct solution. Most of these minority groups within Kazakhstan were placed there. Take, for instance, the German community within Kazakhstan. Many of them do not speak Kazakh very well nor do they really know German (Kazakhstan, n.d.). The reason for this is they were placed there during World War II and after many generations became Russian speaking rather than German speaking. I believe that with these harsh language laws, it is discouraging people to move there or making people who live there emigrate elsewhere, most likely a Russian speaking country. Religion in Kazakhstan is very diverse. Due to the location of the country many religions have been introduced into it and have helped developed the culture of Kazakhstan. Islam is the largest religion in the country. The Islamic population of Kazakhstan makes up about sixty five percent of the population with about one third of the population belonging to Russian Orthodox (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2010). So where does that leave the rest of population? The rest of the population is made up of various religions from out-lying countries as well as religions from throughout the world such as Roman Catholic or Lutheran (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2010). Kazakhstan is very open to all religions, even with Islam being the primary religion. With the location of Kazakhstan, it has almost been a crossroads of sorts between the west and the east and as such has adopted many different religions along the way (Religious Situation Review in Kazakhstan, n.d.). This was due to the tolerance of the Kazakh people spiritually which was inherited from their cultural and ethical traditions. As such, the number of religious institutions and associations rose. In 1990, the number was around six hundred and seventy and has risen to above four thousand (Religious Situation Review in Kazakhstan, n.d.). This is also due to Kazakhstan ensuring religious freedom to all which is a right protected by their constitution. I believe that it is safe to say that Kazakhstan is a great place to go if a person is looking for religious freedom. In fact, Kazakhstan was home to “two Congresses of World and Traditional Religions Leaders in 2003 and 2006” (Religious Situation Review in Kazakhstan, n.d.). In Kazakhstan, as in almost every other country to date, women’s rights have been a fairly large issue. Kazakhstan used French legislation to model its draft on equal rights for women. Although praised for the work on women’s rights, there was some concern on the time frame of implementation. Kazakhstan wanted to take its time. Although pressing matters such as domestic violence and trafficking needed addressed immediately (Women's Anti-Discrimination Committee Takes Up Report of Kazakhstan, 2007). Much work has been made since then. In 2009, the “Law on State Guarantees of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women and on the Prevention of Domestic Violence” was adopted (Women's Rights in Kazakhstan, n.d.). Then in 2012, the ILO Convention was ratified. This convention was concerning equal treatment and opportunities for workers with families for both men and women (Women's Rights in Kazakhstan, n.d.). To me, it seems that women in Kazakhstan are getting treated fairly equally now, and if not now will be in the near future. Women in Kazakhstan do not even have to worry about life in prison or be imprisoned if they have a child under the age of fourteen (Women's Rights in Kazakhstan, n.d.). These kinds of rights for women, I believe, should be fundamental in countries around the world. I know, however, that this is not the case. Women around the world are being treated unfairly just because of their gender. It will be interesting to see if the rest of the world will follow similar strides for equality for women within the near future. Kazakhstan has its fair share of issues. Mostly within the area of ethnic groups as it seems they are trying to drive out most of the ethnic groups by imposing harsh language laws. However, Kazakhstan has made great strides within the religious territory and women’s rights. I firmly believe that within the next decade or two Kazakhstan will be right on target with where they need to be, even with the ethnic groups within the country. It is exciting to see a nation take such great strides to try to combat inequality within its borders.

References

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. (2010, November 2010). International Religious Freedom Report. Retrieved from U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2010/148793.htm
Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved from Minority Rights Group International: http://minorityrights.org/country/kazakhstan/
Religious Situation Review in Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved from Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions: http://www.religions-congress.org/content/view/151/35/lang,english/
Women's Anti-Discrimination Committee Takes Up Report of Kazakhstan. (2007, January 16). Retrieved from United Nations: http://www.un.org/press/en/2007/wom1590.doc.htm
Women's Rights in Kazakhstan. (n.d.). Retrieved from Kazakhstan Human Rights and Rule of Law: http://kazakhstanhumanrights.com/social-economic-cultural/womens-rights/
World Migration. (2015). Retrieved from International Organization for Migration: http://www.iom.int/world-migration