KAZAKHSTANI KOREANS: DIASPORIC TIES IN KAZAKHSTAN AND TRANSNATIONAL PRACTICES WITH SOUTH KOREA

Abstract

The Korean community of Kazakhstan had formed as a result of the initial migration from the Korean peninsula to the Russian Far East at the end of the 19th century and further forced relocation to Central Asia ordered by Stalin in 1937. These Koreans speak Russian as their first language and give their children Russian names. They are dispersed over the vast territory of Kazakhstan and represented in various professional fields. Although today this ethnic community, accounting to over 100,000 people, is represented by the fifth generation of Koreans, in the official sources this ethnic group is referred as the ‘Korean diaspora’. This thesis argues that the Korean community of Kazakhstan doesn’t necessarily fits into the official narrative of diasporic identity as defined by scholarly literature or the officials of Kazakhstan and South Korea. Instead, this community demonstrates a distinctive distancing from diasporic claims and stances articulated by a small minority of the Korean community i.e., the Association of Koreans of Kazakhstan. This research project attempts to understand the reasons for such distancing from their ethnic community in Kazakhstan and motivation to reconnect with South Korea as their perceived ancestral homeland. This thesis is mainly drawn on ethnographic interviews to provide a “bottom-up” perspective from the diasporans themselves. These interviews then are compared with the official rhetoric circulated by national information agents, the Embassy of South Korea in Kazakhstan, and the Associations of Koreans of Kazakhstan. The findings of this research suggest that diasporic boundaries within the examined community are loosening due to various factors such as forgetting of their native language, blurring of collective memory, high rate of intermarriage as well as the economic and technological development. Instead, the Korean community engages in iii transnational practices with their perceived historic homeland: South Korea. These transnational practices, that have been recently expanding include educational and labor migration and associated with it financial and cultural remittances.