[Original title] Kazakhstan xenophobia: actual problems or fabricated problems?
Recently, the topic of "Kazakhstan xenophobia" has appeared on the Internet. It can be seen from the current situation of Russians entering Kazakhstan. But it cannot be said that this phenomenon is popular, which raises a question: How practical is xenophobia? Which part of society is prone to this kind of emotion? What is the reason behind it? What are the consequences of their growth? Can it be boycotted? Let's see how these Kazakh experts interpret it.
After Russia issued a partial mobilization order, a large number of people and vehicles gathered at the border.
01 "Xiaopia is contagious"
sociologist and project leader of the Eurasian Personnel Management Center
xenophobia can be caused by both traumatic experiences and perceived threats, such as immigration may rob the work of locals. In theory, xenophobia is based on two emotional states that can be exacerbated when socioeconomic conditions deteriorate—fear and hatred. Psychologists believe that xenophobia is contagious and has certain dangers, especially if a person with leadership and mass influence possesses this psychology. Exposure to xenophobia will increase the possibility of serious social conflict exponentially. In exceptional circumstances, this danger manifests itself as a willingness to reject all moral norms and prohibitions, resulting in impulsive and reckless behavior.
A sociological axiom is that xenophobia is more likely to occur to those who encounter problems with self-realization and life satisfaction. Numerous research records show that the decisive factor in tolerance to immigration is income level.
But this is in theory.
Back to practice, Kazakhstan certainly also has xenophobia, just like any other society. However, given that the mainstream part of the population supports policies aimed at ensuring interracial harmony and equal opportunity, Kazakhstan's xenophobic level can be assessed as relatively low. At the same time, it is worth noting that this sentiment may grow if the socio-economic situation deteriorates. It can also be affected by the traumatic experiences of individuals who have directly experienced unfair treatment. Learning from history, the growth of xenophobia will lead to the most disastrous consequences.
As for factors that can resist the growth of xenophobia and escalate it into violent actions, the first includes the comprehensive and detailed legislation in the relevant fields, a strong legal culture tradition, citizens' confidence in the fairness of the courts and the effectiveness of the police, mature civil society, and developed mutual assistance and support networks.
From the hot topics in the current social and political agenda, we can conclude that Kazakh citizens are characterized by their low degree of xenophobia. Of course, the impact of the geopolitical crisis has also made self-adjustment. Today, a number of people in Kazakhstan have objective concerns about the employment and accommodation of a large number of internally displaced persons. And this doesn’t seem completely unfounded: information emerged in the media about employers preparing to fire their own citizens to hire foreign citizens. Although these are individual cases, attention must be paid to avoid deterioration of the situation - the national interests of our country and the interests of our citizens must be put first.
02 "Kazakhstans do not support xenophobia"
political scientist Zaksirek Sabitov
Kazakhstan's xenophobia is much lower than that of Russia and other countries. Most people do not support xenophobia, and only a small number of people show hostility towards all foreign things. From this perspective, the xenophobia of from other countries is even more dangerous for Kazakhstan.
In terms of inter-ethnic relations, Kazakhstan has always pursued a very restrained and pragmatic policy. Therefore, there is nothing to adjust. The only problem with is the lack of clear national policies to form historical memory.
03 "Is this not xenophobia? What is it?"
reporter Asheer Xierikova
As we all know, xenophobia is unique to society with serious ideological differences. Due to various situations, these societies have the division of "one-one-outsiders". Given the serious contradictions in Kazakhstan on a large number of issues, such as language issues, cultural characteristics of different ethnic groups, attitudes toward historical past, and membership of Kazakhstan in the Integrated Association, it is conceivable that xenophobia emerges.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the large number of immigrants caused by it are a severe test for Kazakhstan. The Internet is full of malicious speeches and videos of provocative videos of allowing only partially mobilized Turkic ethnic groups to enter the country and close the border against the Slavs, because the latter came here to "rape, kill, and incite separatist sentiment." What is this not a manifestation of xenophobia?
The picture shows a border checkpoint between Kazakhstan and Russia.
In November 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov posted a comment on xenophobic incidents targeting Russian-speaking citizens in Kazakhstan, criticizing Kazakhstan's Russian-terrorism, which caused a "uproar" at the time. Many people in Kazakhstan, including some in power, believe they are responsible for responding to such “slander” and blatant “lie.” But was Lavrov wrong? In particular, he made it clear that this sentiment was triggered by Western countries that benefited from creating a hotbed of tensions in the region.
A recent survey by Stanford University in the United States also recorded this assessment. According to its Internet Observatory, there is a fake account network in the social media field of Central Asia, which posts in Russian, Kazakh and Kyrgyz with the aim of stimulating the growth of anti-Russia and anti-China sentiment. To achieve better results, the network organizers deliberately highlighted the issue of Russia and China's violation of the national identity of Central Asian citizens and spread calls for extremist nature.
But this information hardly "splashes". For a long time, some foreign foundations that have established representative offices in Kazakhstan have systematically provided grants to civil society and the mass media for such activities. The result of this practice is an increase in xenophobia. Several years ago, the Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists confirmed that there is "international alienation" in Kazakh society, which according to analysis, provides a considerable possibility for the emergence of xenophobia (the level of this emotion reaches 40% among different research groups).
Of course, the xenophobia currently observed in and its main reason for its growth is not at all lies in different views on certain events and phenomena. These problems are deeper, and is due to the lack of clear national policies on national construction issues and the failure to form national concepts and national ideologies.
Without specialized research, it is difficult to predict how xenophobia will develop in this situation. But world experience shows that this can lead to mass migration from certain ethnic groups to ethnic cleansing and even genocide.
Obviously, Kazakhstan needs to take appropriate and adequate countermeasures to prevent this threat. But the educational measures proposed by the state are unlikely to have any significant impact. As time goes by, there is now a need to take a completely different, tougher approach, which may include thorough investigation of hostility towards members of other ethnic groups and forcing criminal charges.
The consequences of xenophobia are still a rhetorical question at this stage.
Source: qmonitor.kz
Compilation: Vika
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