[LINK] "Astana Lures Ethnic Kazakh Migrants with Financial Incentives"

[rfmcdonald]

Eurasianet's Joanne Lillis writes at length about how Kazakhstan's long-standing program of recruiting ethnic Kazakhs from neighbouring countries as immigrants is continuing, despite this program's continuing problems with integration and the recent economic chill.

The Nurly Kosh (Blessed Migration) program -- launched January 1 -- targets three groups of migrants: the estimated 3.5-4.5 million ethnic Kazakhs living abroad; skilled former citizens of Kazakhstan; and citizens living in depressed zones. To get these groups to move to under-populated areas, the government is offering an array of incentives designed to provide "rational resettlement and assistance with settling down and integrating." Perks include one-off subsidies, paid travel costs and low-interest loans to buy land or housing.

Many observers have given the plans a cautious welcome, but -- with the program set to run until 2011 -- it is early days, cautions Anna Genina, a University of Michigan anthropology doctoral candidate, who is conducting research in Kazakhstan on ethnic Kazakh migrants, who are known as oralmandar (returnees). "I don’t know if it will actually materialize into something other than a concept on paper," Genina told EurasiaNet.

While many migrants welcome the perks offered, there are challenges. Genina questioned the wisdom of locking new arrivals into a long-term debt of up to 10 years to buy or build housing. "There may be some who will buy into it, but for most people it’s probably not a good idea," she said.

One key problem Nurly Kosh seeks to address is population distribution, by offering incentives to migrants to settle in target areas. Ethnic Kazakh migrants often choose to live in southern and western regions, where Kazakh is more widely spoken and the culture more familiar. However, these regions suffer from a bloated labor supply, while the population of northern regions is shrinking: statistics show the population was up at the end of 2008 in all but three regions in the north of the country: Akmola, Kostanay and North Kazakhstan.

As is usual with this sort of plan, government-defined demographic objectives--i.e. building a Kazakh nation-state--play a key role, such that the question of how to settle people lacking life experience in Kazakhstan doesn't seem to be much considered.