rfmcdonald | [BRIEF NOTE] On the Germans of Kazakstan (Reply)

Via Registan, a Reuters Alertnet article on Kazakstan's Volga Germans. Understandably, given historical sufferings--the initial deportation in 1941, more than a decade spent in labour camps, continued persecution well into the 1980s--the desire to emigrate is a major theme.

For Irina Geisler, a young ethnic German in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty, 'returning' to Germany, couldn't be more natural. "I feel German. It's my dream," the 19-year-old linguistics student told IRIN. Her application for German citizenship currently awaits approval.

"All my life I've heard about Germany. It's part of my life," she said with a German accent heavily influenced by the Schwabian roots of her ancestors. Such dreams remain strong for thousands of such ethnic Germans in today's Kazakhstan, with many of Irina's friends torn between both countries. "Half of the young ethnic Germans would like to return, the other half don't want to leave Kazakhstan," Geisler conceded, describing it as an individual decision many young people like her still face.

"I've thought about going to Germany but I've finished my education already," 29-year-old Evgenija Mayer, an employee at the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung in Almaty, told IRIN. "I worry I would have to start all over again." But starting again is precisely what hundreds of thousands like her have done already. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, more than 900,000 ethnic Germans and their families have emigrated to Germany, the German Embassy in Almaty told IRIN.

In all, three-quarters of the 1.2 million ethnic Germans of the former Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic have emigrated since 1991. The remnant Kazakhstani German community is much diminished, as many of the most firmly "German" members of the community have already left, assimilation--whether intermarriage or simple voluntary assimilation--is taking a high toll, and fluency in the German language is declining.

The quotas and measures may have been related to the fact that during this period, Germany's unemployment rates had risen, post-reunification euphoria had declined and with it the public's enthusiasm for admitting more immigrants. Moreover, while the total number of ethnic Germans from Kazakhstan and their dependents had decreased, Welt said, integration problems had increased. He attributed this in part to poor German language skills among those admitted under the programme. This was particularly the case among extended families and dependents that made up the majority of the immigrants at that time. language skills among those admitted under the programme. This was particularly the case among extended families and dependents that made up the majority of the immigrants at that time.

In 1993, ethnic Germans made up 75 percent of the immigrants with the rest composed of family members. By 2003, only 20 percent of the immigrants admitted under the Aussiedler programme were ethnic Germans, with the remaining 80 percent being dependent family members, according to the MIS report.

I have to admit a certain skepticism about the long-term future of Kazakstan's Germans, between continued assimilation into non-German communities and emigration to Germany. Even so, Kazakstan will inevitably continue to play an important role in the history of the ethnic German diaspora.

Meanwhile, Irina Geisler, who learned German from her grandfather, keeps her sights on the land of her ancestors thousands of miles away, while at the same time, never forgetting who she is and where she came from. "Our families and homes are here," Geisler said. "I will of course want to stay in contact with my second country, which is and remains Kazakhstan."