Cerny on Kazakhs in China Published

7/31/2019 Cerny on Kazakhs in China Published

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Pastoralism Vol. 1 No. 1 January 2010

Astrid Cerny (email: astr [email protected]) received her PhD in Geography at the University

of Washington, Seattle in 2008. She currently owns a consulting firm and works on

international projects.

Practical Action Publishing, 2010, www.practicalactionpublishing.orgdoi: 10.3362/2041-7136.2010.013, ISSN: 2041-7128 (print) ISSN 2041-7136 (online)

Going where the grass is greener:

China Kazaks and the Oralmanimmigration policy in Kazakhstan

ASTRID CERNY

This paper discusses the quiet exodus of Kazaks, especially nomadic herders, from

China to Kazakhstan. In contrast to the dominant Chinese worldview that ethnic

m inorities are backward and need sedentarizat ion, am ong other policies, to enjoy

development, Kazaks have other ideas. Heeding the beckoning call of the oralman

immigration programme, Kazaks are packing their yurts and applying for exit visas.

Using perspectives taken from in terviews with f am ilies in two X injiang prefectures,

it is clear that Kazakhstan represents the grass is greener option for fam ilies in th eliteral sense. Governmental responsessupport the migration, while demographicrealities and policy warp the m irage of a better future. This paper exam ines the facts

and the projections of a glorious Kazakh nation under construction to understand

how a nationalist agenda and environmental distress contribute to everyday choices

about sheep, grass and where to call home.

Keywords: Ch ina Kazaks, n om ads, migration, em igration , sustain ability,

deve lopment

Introduction

Kazaks and other ethnic groups in China are gaining an increasing amountof attention in recent years as they strive to assert their identities and cul-

tures as separate and distin ct from t he m ajority Han popu lation. The Kazaks,

who nu mber some 1.1 million people in th e Xinjiang Uighur Auton omou s

Region , th e vast region comp rising on e-sixth of Chin as territory an d located

in the north-west, adjacent to Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and five oth-

er nations, have a strong identification with a nomadic past. In Xinjiang,

Kazaks live in Urum qi an d o th er cities, and are foun d d ispersed m ainly across

th e no rth ern p refectu res of Yili, Tachen g and Altai. As elsewhere for no m adic

peoples, th e tren d in Xinjiang is towards settlement in town s and u rban cen-

tres. Research shows pastoral Kazaks in China face a crisis in the modern

era unparallel to those in prior generations, brought on by the combined

constraints of environm ental degradation, econom ic volatility and political

expectations.1 As they navigate modernity from a position of occupational


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Pastoralism Vol. 1 No. 2 July 2010

CHINA KAZAKS AND IMMIGRATION TO KAZAKHSTAN 219

and cultural rootedn ess, they emb race the idea of emigrating to Kazakhstan

as a way of securin g an on going pastoral futu re.

Interestingly, China is willing to let them go, while Kazakhstan is activelybeckoning to the worldwide Kazak diaspora to return to the ethnic mother-

land. The China Kazaks, though seemingly a collective chess piece in global

politics, could inadvertently be a useful harbinger of new values for inte-

gratin g hum ans and th e en vironm ent. Pastoralists have been misun derstood

for too long and have suffered many losses in the 20 th centu ry due to par-

celization of land, marginalization to less fertile land and coerced settlemen t.

These very issues are amon g th e reason s Chin a Kazaks are attracted to leaving

for Kazakhstan, where they believe they will have the freedom to migrate

with th eir livestock.

Cen tral Asian peo ples, inclu din g Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Uzbeks and m ore

became segregated int o stans an d eth n ic m ino rities in t h e course of early

20 th century world history. Not only were new borders drawn that sepa-

rated families and tribal units , but grazing land s and m igration rou tes of

th e nom adic populations were bifurcated and altered to fit inside new na-

tion states. Th is split som e Kazaks off in Mon golia, others in Russia, Ch ina

and Kazakhstan. Throughout the 20 th centu ry, n om adic Kazaks, as well as

Mon golians and Kyrgyz, endu red great changes in th eir environm ent an d

an imal h usban dry practices. Th e Soviets imp lemen ted rigorous seden tariza-

tion b eginn ing in th e 1930s, bringing m any Kazaks under th e sovkhoz an d

kolkhoz ideological mod el of production, wh ile allowing for a con tinu ation

of some livestock migration (Alimaev and Behnke, 2008). In Kazakhstan,

this societal upheaval was succeeded by new restructuring after the dis-

solution of th e Soviet Un ion th at radically reduced th e livestock popu la-

tion s (Kerven et al. , 2006). The dissolutio n also con tribut ed to a significant

popula t ion dec l ine throughout the 1990s , mainly brought on by e thnicRussian s leavin g Kazakhstan (OHara an d Gen tile, 2009; UNDP, 2006). No-

m adic activity and even pastoralism were all but elim inat ed in Kazakhstan .

Yet th e governm ent today actively prom otes its national image with ho rses

and pastures, and chose the yurt gable as its predominant symbol on the

na t iona l flag .

China Kazaks were spared the ruthless no sheep left behind practices of

mid-century Com mu nist rule as happened in th e Soviet Un ion, but h ave re-

cently come under new forms of economic and ecological duress from their

own central an d local governm ent s. Reality, for th ose Kazaks in th e Xinjiang

Uighu r Auton om ous Region wh o choo se to herd sheep and maint ain livestock,

keeps getting smaller. They are subject to geographical enclosures at a macro

and m icro level. Th ese enclosures first began in th e 1950s, but h ave become

more stringent and inescapable in the recent decade, mirroring general trendsin Xinjiang.

Organized by counties, townships and villages, pastoral families move

in family units, but also as jurisdictional units. This had allowed for some

ongoing flexibility in time and date, with room to negotiate for pasture


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July 2010 Pastoralism Vol. 1 No. 2

220 A. CERNY

usage. In th e 1980s, th e liyongzheng (grassland utilization certificate) system

granted families individual sum mer grazing p astures for person al use, to t h e

exclusion of oth ers, except by negotiation. With th e beginn ing of econom icreforms and an emphasis on provincial level economic development (read:

revenu e generation), lan d grabs and oth er forms of land title disenfranchise-

ment have become common. These include, for example, persuasion of the

title-holding nomad by a local government official to give up th e certificate

when mining interests want the land controlled by the certificate (Cerny,

2008). Most recently, new enclosures are appearing in the forms of fences,

most erected un der the tuimu huancao policy, starting in 2005.

Coup led with th e increasingly severe degradation of th e grazing land s in

both winter an d sum m er pastures of recen t years, which itself had been exac-

erbated by locusts, rodent s an d un favourable weath er con dition s, th e quality

of pasturage for the livestock has become a grave concern across counties to

Kazak nomads, government officials and scientists alike. What is the most

important factor to the success of nomadic activity the widest possible

flexibility of grazing options is no longer the norm for pastoral Kazaks in

Xinjiang.

Furth ermore, this tighten ing of access to high quality and sufficient quan -

tity grazing land h as led to d irect econom ic im pacts for th e fam ilies. Th inn er

sheep fetch lower prices, wh ile the m arket is flooded with supply when n o-

mads n eed or want to reduce flock sizes at certain tim es of the year. Th e next

year the families add m ore sh eep to m ake up in volum e for the lower prices

per head, kn owing th at th is is un sustain able. As the cost of living in Ch ina

has been going up rapidly, even in this remote western province, the cash

incom e for herdin g families has decreased un der th e imp act of m arket forces.

Politically, ecologically and econ om ically, in recen t years man y families fin d

themselves caught in a vicious cycle contributing to their own destitution.It is all th e m ore traum atic for families since th is is th e bust th at followed

several boom years where deman d for m eat in t h e cities had led to escalating

prices and profits for them . Herding families expected th eir in comes to keep

rising over time, yet this did not h appen .

This h as forced h eads of household an d en tire extended families to em -

ploy n ew strategies for survival, seriously weighin g up wh eth er to cont inu e

m igrations and herding or stop altogether, to succumb t o th e pressures to

sedentarize, or to con sider th e one-way option of emigrating to Kazakhstan

o n t h e oralman programme. They face very tough choices indeed.

Based on m y research with pastoral Kazaks (hen ceforth Ch ina Kazaks) in

Xinjiang,2 I argue that altho ugh t h e Kazakhstan em igration op portun ity is

an impo rtant new o ption for these Kazaks to choose a sustain able futu re, it

con tain s at least th e sam e level of riskas their life in Ch ina and additionalconstraints. The Chinese states rhetoric of bringing modernity (sedenta-

rization and farming) to the backward regions of the country is proven

misguided when China Kazaks would rather choose the devil they dont

know than the devil they do. Interestingly, the rhetoric from Kazakhstans


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governm ent m atches the hop es for the future in the m inds of the China

Kazaks far m ore closely th an t h at of Chin as cent ral govern m ent .

Lured by t he p rom ise of free health and education services, th e mirage ofgreener grass and plentiful land o n which to graze their livestock, the Ch ina

Kazaks have been undertaking a cross-border permanent migration for the

first time since th e short-lived exodu s in t h e early 1960s. Th ey believe that

Kazakhstan is somewhat of a promised land, delivering them from the ex-

hausted soils of their counties and removing the yoke of Chinese cultural

coercion. My interviews confirm th at they h ave only a vague un derstanding

of the ground level reality across the border. This imagined reality is mostly

anecdotally known to th e families in Ch ina, usually by word of m outh from

stories told by migr family m embers back to visit, pot entially supp lement -

ed by snippets of media information. Not only the oralman programm e, but

the very concepts and opportunities for immigration into Kazakhstan have

captured the imagination of many Kazaks living in Xinjiang. I show in my

discussion of th e oralman programm e and t he recent con ditions in Xinjiang

how this desire has been fuelled, and also how the emigration opportunity

does little to solve th e on going problems en suing from grassland degradation

or th e risk of poverty am on g livestock h erding Kazaks in both coun tries.

Methods

This article is based on doctoral and pre-doctoral research conducted

in Xinjiang and greater China between 2004 and 2007. The aim of the

research was to un derstand th e ecological sustain ability paramet ers of grass-

lands when being used with nomadic methods of animal husbandry, and

to un derstand th e Kazaks who u se th em on th eir own t erms as th ey negoti-

ate their own modernity. As often happens in research, a very interestingphen omenon came to my a t tent ion dur ing the seasons of my work: there

were many p eople, youn g and old, male and female, who expressed a strong

desire to emigrate to Kazakhstan. For a population that was locally mobile

in predictable and replicated patterns, but was otherwise politically locked

in an d econom ically ham strung, this was a surprisingly bold inten tion.

Here, I portray some of th e people behin d th e expressed d esire to leave

Ch ina. I extract several stories from m y fieldwork th at are illustrative of

the points I am making about the mirage of Kazakhstan as the promised

land. Originally undertaken as fieldwork in Tekesi, Muli, Tuo li and Fuyu n

counties of nor th ern Xinj iang, m y pr inc ipa l metho ds were s t ructured an d

semi-structured in terviews as well as participan t o bservation . Som e data

was collected through extended stays in summer pastures, some through

short multi-day visits . To expand the story into what the reality of

emigration to Kazakh stan actually looks like, withou t visiting Kazakh stan

and witho ut Russian-speakin g ability, I rely primarily on textual an alysis ,

mainly of governm enta l , no n-governm enta l and ins t i tu t iona l document s

in English .


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222 A. CERNY

Wh at struck me in th e conversations over time and across the region were

th e similarities. Youn g women and o ld men spoke with equal conviction th at

moving to Kazakhstan was not only the answer, but was going to solve allth eir problem s, an d life would be good. The p rinciple differences in outlook

were mainly attributable to t he geographical separation; th e distan ce of the

speakers location to the border crossings with Kazakhstan.

Thus, interviewees in the Yili prefectural counties just a few hours to the

east of Kazakhstan spoke of this option most frequently and convincingly,

wh ile th ose in Fuyun Coun ty in th e north ern m ost Altai prefecture, closer to

Mongolia, were less likely to raise the topic or answer my questions affirma-

tively. Th ose in Mu li Coun ty, furth er away into th e interior of Xinjiang, al-

th ough quite ecologically an d econ om ically impoverished, were also far less

likely to have inten tion s or plans to emigrate away from th eir situation . By

th e sam e token, families in Tuoli Coun ty, a coun ty adjacen t to Kazakhstan ,

were quite likely to have such plans, and like families in the Yili counties,

were also likely to kn ow someon e or h ave a family m ember already in Almaty

or elsewhere in Kazakhstan.

The promised land? What it means to be an oralman

The states in Central Asia have been in a state offlux since th e early 1990s

with t h e dissolution of th e Soviet Union an d th e disintegration of th e Soviet

Socialist Republic model. Wh at en sued was not on ly an econom ic freefall, but

also th e begin nin g of a long search for cultural ident ity and re-identification

on th e worlds stage. While each n ew nat ion scram bled to assert itself accord-

ing to its dom inant eth nic identifier: Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazak, Turk m en , Tajik,

etc., each also began grappling with th e new significance of its own borders

and th e diaspora of its eth nic cousins.Nowh ere is th is truer th an Kazakhstan . Kazakhstan , thou gh th e nin th larg-

est coun try in t he world b y geographical area, boasts a popu lation of just over

15 m illion today. The already mo dest popu lation size becam e a cause for con-

cern to do mestic demographers and governmen t officials in th e m id-1990s.

With th e exodus of ethn ic Russians out of Kazakhstan , th e new repub lic lost

2 million people or 12 per cent of its total population between 1993 and

1999. Th e loss of population was detrim ental, because it presented n ot on ly

a brain drain of scientists and h ighly educated citizens, but because it created

add ition al gaps in th e labour force (UNDP, 2006).

This reality concurrently encountered a massive cultural revival of the

notion of Kazakness. The Kazak intelligentsia, long in the second-class

citizen ro le to th e Russian elites, seized its chan ce to proclaim th e greatn ess

of the eth nic Kazak people, and sought t o m anifest this strength th rough

in fluen ce over langu age policies an d n ew imm igration laws (Sancak, 2007;

Sarsem bayev, 1999). Stron g nat ion alism led to wh at Diener (2005) called a

dichotom ous agenda, wh ere nationalistic activity simultan eously prom oted


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in-migration of Kazaks from th e greater diaspora an d t h e strength ening of

Kazak culture elsewhere th rough relationsh ip buildin g (wh ile n ot en courag-

ing m igration); econom ic con sideration s collided with th e enth usiasm an dvision for a strong nation of Kazakhstan.

This proved a fertile soil for th e oralman policy to take root. Th e term oral-

m an is derived from a Kazak verb meaning to repatriate or reunite. Created

as a way of strength enin g th e position o f Kazaks as th e majority in power in

th e fledgling n ation, it also had a proactive goal of regain ing th e popu lation

lost to th e exodus o f former citizen s. That is to say, Kazakhstan m aintain s

th e oralman as an official programm e and policy measure designed t o attract

ethn ic Kazaks livin g in oth er coun tries for im m igration, an d to supp ort th em

with h ousing, education and ot her benefits on ce they arrive.

The ethn ic imm igration policy welcomed t he returnees the eth n ic Kazaks

living in th e diaspora includin g Mon golia, Chin a, Uzbekistan, Afgh anistan,

Turkey and oth er cou n tries (Labor, 2006). Presiden t Nursult an Nazarbaev first

alluded t o th is policy in a 1992 speech , first enacted it int o law in 1997 and

it has since been m odified several mo re times (Kazakhstan , 2002; 2004; 2005;

Kazakhstan , 2007).

Th e oralman draw worked. Accordin g to Syroezhkin (2009), between 1993

and 2005, 300,000 people returned from several neighbouring countries

(th is includ es th ose gran ted residency as well as citizensh ip). Am on g th ose

were 3,907 Chinese Kazaks who had assumed Kazakhstani citizenship in

2005 (Syroezhkin, 2009). The portion of China Kazaks among total immi-

grants is relatively small, but increased throughout the last decade. While

in 200 2, th ere were a report ed 4,293, by 2006, th ere were 37,788 people, ac-

cord in g to several Min istry of Labo ur sou rces (Sado vskaya, 2007). UNDP, in

th eir comprehen sive Oralman report placed th e total nu mb er of all oralman

imm igrants at 464,000 peop le (UNDP, 2006) An oth erfi

gure points to a totalof 651,299 oralman imm igrants between 1991 and 2007 (Kusku, 2008).

On e key feature, but also sticking p oint , is the oralman quo ta system, wh ich

offers housing ben efits, travel costs, emp loymen t an d education integration

assistance to th ose wh o fall within th e qu ota (IRIN, n.d.; NBCA, 2006). Two

state officials person ally confirmed th at those who are within the qu ota are

also eligible for leased an d even free lan d. Depend ing on th e district, this m ay

be up to 10,000 h ectares to wh ich each family could gain access.3 The policy

and the qu ota system have been very popular, though there are man y more

returnees that fall outside the quota, and there have been no bene fits paid

out except within th e quota. For example, the UNDP report on t h e Status of

Oralmans (2006) explicitly stated, To date, the majority of government allo-

cation for oralman integration has been spent on housing for those included

in the quota. Conversely, those not included in the quota receive no assis-tan ce in find ing temp orary or permanent accomm odation. Some returnees

even found themselves counted as stateless if they gave up their previous

citizen ship with out being exten ded th e Kazakhstan i citizenship (IRIN, n.d.).


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224 A. CERNY

The comp lexity added to th e mix by th e fact th at the oralman policy has a

quota system, which has historically been quite low (in the thousands) and

a less restrictive open-door policy towards immigration under which manythousands more are accepted, should not be underestimated. One estimate

shows that in 2001 imm igration reach ed fifteen times the governm ent qu ota

for returnin g families, a total of 9,105 families for th at year alone, wh ile the

quota was set at 600 (IRIN, n.d). After some years of inadequate quotas, in

late 2004, the government enlarged the annual and by country figures by

5,000 per year, but it still does no t captu re th e actual stream of families pour-

ing in . In 2004, on ly one-fourth , or 2,500 out o f 10,000 families in Almaty,

were part of the quota system (IRIN, n.d). In 2006, some 1,500 families are

reported to have come from China, while the China quota was set for 500

families (NBCA, 2006). The consequence is direct: the majority of the re-

turn ees remained in eligible for full econom ic an d education al opportu nities

(CACI, 2004).

Ethnic Kazaks from other countries have been welcomed as returnees to

the mother land through the oralman programme, or without it. As bona

fide imm igrant s, th ey are not t urn ed away at th e border. Not being awarded

oralman status, h owever, means th at th ere is limited entitlemen t to oralman

benefits. This in turn made the whole system prone to corruption at every

level (Kusku , 200 8).

The deman d for th e oralman program m e raises n ew issues. Not on ly does this

create n ew problem s for Kazakh stan as new arrivals struggle to gain a foot h old

econom ically and socially, increasin g comp etition for work and sch ooling, but

it illustrates the disconnection between the legal infrastructure and the grand

vision of the newly-formed state under President Nursultan Nazarbaev for

Kazakhstan as a nation. The on going nature of the dem and for ent ry and th e

oralman quota data suggest that even the primary practical goal of the pro-gramme: to recover the population numbers following the departure of large

n um bers of Russians h as not been m et effectively. For imm igrant s from Ch ina

and elsewhere, who com e ho ping an d expecting land and a revival of their

herding activities, one economic stress (not enough grass to fatten the sheep

for a good m arket value) may be replaced by oth ers (no legal right s to grazing

land, a need to find employment in unfamiliar settings, etc.), as well as en-

countering a beholden position to auth ority figures.

Xinjiang under development

Over the last three decades, China has regularly made the front page news

stories, much of it for its double-digit econ om ic growth and dramatic societal

changes. Chinas image abroad has changed, and it continues to revise itsself-perception, wh ich in t urn becomes man ifest in its domestic and foreign

policy. China perceived itself as a backward nation for decades in the late

20 th century an d for cen turies in com parison to Western p owers. Now enjoy-

ing th e fruits of econom ic growth in th e eastern p rovinces, it no lon ger sees


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th e n ation as backward, but still refers to its own , less econ om ically thriv-

ing provinces as backward. The glowing national picture has been punctu-

ated with reporting on th e disparities that exist between th e thriving easterncoastal provinces and th e interior provin ces. Poverty alleviation has becom e

a real concern for action , and en vironm ental issues are no lon ger swept u n -

der the rug. Indeed, in its discourse on rural areas, the central government

never ceases to create linkages between the social and the environmental

well-being of th e coun tryside (Xin hu a, 2002; 2007b).4

Since 1999, a sweeping plan to develop th e west has been a p ivotal focus

of th e cen tral govern m ent s activities. Th is plan ostensibly prom otes econ om -

ic growth and development in the western regions as well as benefit t ing the

population through increased access to economic opportunities, better social

m obility option s and in creased en vironm ent al sustainability. Yet, wheth er re-

ferred to as a plan or a programme, scholars point out that develop the west

lacks specificity and h as already un dergone a shift in em ph ases over th e several

years since being officially unveiled (Naughton, 2004; Oakes, 2007). Develop

th e west is at its most o bjective a wide-sweeping agend a for chan ge to p eople,

land scapes and econ om ies, at best a well-int ent ioned stimulu s package.

Xinjiang is often considered to be at the heart of this development plan.

Since 2002, the developm ent o f the energy sector has mo ved full speed ahead

through such projects as the famous West-East pipeline (which started op-

erations in December 2004) and an international natural gas pipeline from

Kazakhstan to China (completed in December 2005). Mining is increasingly

seen as a profitable en terprise (CMF, 2006; CIMG, 2007; XCAN, 2006), attract-

ing in vestm ent from dom estic as well as foreign sources (Newswire, 2005; Zijin,

2007) in Xinjiang for resources as diverse as coal, gold an d m olybden um (EIC,

2006; US Embassy, 1996). Mainstream media and academic literature have

both reported on th ese upward econ om ic trends, as well as on th e continuo usHan in-migration from m ore easterly provinces, as a political measure to foster

regional stability. Notably, some claim the in-migration is a thinly disguised

form of colonization (Bovingd on , 2004; Naugh ton , 2004).

Impacts of Xinjiang development and grassland policies onChina Kazaks

From the outside, it appears that good things are coming to the region.

Economic growth will revitalize stagnant industries, providing new oppor-

tunities and job diversification to the population. It will continue to boost

incom es, for rural and u rban p eople alike. However, th ings that soun d good

in news reports often bespeak mu ch d eeper, m ore comp lex issues in reality.

Furthermore, there has been a tendency in the 20 th century to highly valueeconomic growth (measured in industrial outputs and the like) and to focus

exclusively on th is as a measure of positive developmen t. On ly in th e mo st

recent decades has this belief been in fluenced by a greater appreciation of

the cost to th e natural environm ent an d th e implications for hu man society.


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226 A. CERNY

Whether develop the west reduces or causes deeper poverty remains to be

seen. For Kazak no m ads in Xinjiang, chan ges brough t abou t by n ew policies

h ave exacerbated th eir predicament an d con tributed to th eir desire to leaveChina outright.

In a larger study I reported from th e remote reaches of Xinjiang about t h e

current reality of Kazak n om ads from th eir perspective, and h ow it stan ds for

th e sustainable ecological developm ent (Chinese governm ent term) of th e

grassland s, the resource they d epend on (Cern y, 2008). This is a pop ulation

that almost never makes the headlines, yet is directly in the line of impact

from econ om ic changes in Xinjiang. Un til no w, very little research has been

done on China Kazaks compared with Tibetans, Uighurs and other minori-

ties an d p ublished m aterial related to grassland s and Ch ina Kazaks rem ains

limited (Banks and Doman, 2001; Banks, 2002; Banks et al., 2003; Bedunah

and Harris, 2002; Benson, 1998; Brown et al., 2008; Finke, 2004; Hamann,

2007; Reyn olds, 2006).

Th ere is no dou bt t h at all pastoral Kazaks are in for a ch ange. Th ey know

it an d th ey welcome im provemen ts in t heir lives as m uch as anyon e else. Yet

what became apparent in m y fieldwork is that alongside remarkable societal

change and economic progress, there are some serious concerns about cur-

rent and intended policy to be weighed in the balance, as they do and will

imp act Kazaks. Current p astoral condition s are blamed on th e current users,

but in actuality, the story of degradation has historical roots in rapid de-

forestation, overuse of water resources and exploitative agricultural practices

(Elvin, 1998; Millward, 2008; Sh apiro, 2001; Xinh ua, 2002). Furt h er tension s

over land use are caused by shadowy manoeuvres in land acquisition that

have steadily limited the total agricultural (and pastoral) production areas

(Jiang, 2006).

Scientists in Xinjiang and other grassland provinces are aware of theintense environm ental cond itions th at nom ads must deal with, and the in-

creasing severity of the hazards. While Chinese scientific papers have often

been little more than an extension of the official governm ent line, in recent

years, more and more researchers have been publishing their findings with

n otable candou r. Som e are earnestly grappling with th e penetratin g issues of

land degradation in the grassland and alpine terrains in northern Xinjiang

and th e greater Central Asian grassland expanses. In th e comp rehen sive stud-

ies of Asian p astoral resources for t h e FAO (Food an d Agricultu ral Organ iza-

tion of the United Nation s), Hu and Zhan g (2002) adm it th at desertification,

at least, is a result of multiple causes: deforestation contributing the most

at 32 per cent, o vergrazing respon sible for 29 per cen t an d o ver-cultivation

of grassland resulting in 23 per cent of th e problem. They also believed th at

closing off grasslands to help them recover, while providing fenced in areasto individual families and encouraging artificial pastures (alfalfa and hay,

primarily) are a solution .

Also in pursuit of sustainable grassland management is the work of Yu et

al. (1999). They argue for a botanical species derived approach to healthy


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grassland coverage and utilization. Parallel to this, local grassland institute

research sought to extract more forage from wild botanical species (Guo et

al., 2000). Chen (2005) form ulates a new way of calculating a stocking den -sity for th e pastures in t h e Altai, wh ich is almost brave in light of th e politi-

cal weight of th e m assive tuimu huancao (TMHC) or Returning Grazingland

to Grassland project. More expedient t o th e aims of the TMHCproject is th e

idea that the grassland, for sustainable animal husbandry purposes, should

be categorized into three zones: the ecological function region, economic

function region and m ixed function region (Guo et al. , 2004), which are

similar to the grazing prohibition, temporary grazing ban and rotational

grazing divisions created by TMHC. More recently Wu and Du (2008), in

th eir work on Inn er Mongolian grassland s, finally alter course in th e debate

and argue outright for th e abolishm ent of private grassland usage righ ts and

fencing; for they run amok of the natural parameters inherent to grassland

ecosystems. As one of the lone voices in the (Chinese) wilderness, they ad-

vocate a return to n om adism as th e appropriate way to efficien tly utilize th e

grassland natural resource.

The Returning Grazingland to Grassland project, or tuimu huancao, is qui-

etly being rolled out in Xinjiang, Tibet and elsewhere in grassland provin ces.

The project is most closely but awkwardly translated in English as turning

grazingland int o grassland. It also circulates in tran slation as retirin g pasture

to restore grassland and more misleadingly return pasture to grass. It was

ann oun ced in November 2002 and its first five-year im plemen tation was from

20032007. According to a local news article, the initial target was to fence off

and re-seed 1 billion mu (67 million h ectares) of grassland in th e period 2003

2007 (CDB, 2003). It is th is project wh ich current ly mo st directly imp acts the

lives and livelihood s of nom ads in Xin jiang. Its scope in cludes massive fencing

efforts, geospatial data capture, and the permanent settlement of the Kazaksand other nomadic ethnic minorities. Its title suggests a purely ecologically-

m ind ed project, which like grain for green, a prior environm ent al cam paign

in Ch ina, h as positive social benefits for rural pop ulation s. It is different from

grain for green in th at it d oes have an ulterior social mot ive. Tuimu huancao

lays the groundwork for settlement of Chinas remaining nomadic popula-

tion s. It is deleterious to th e nat ive wildlife, man y species of which also h ave

migration cycles that become disrupted by the fencing. It has been unclear

wheth er it will benefit th e grasslan ds. Th e kno wn risks and failures of fencing

elsewhere in Ch in a (Bauer, 2005; William s, 2002 ; Wu and Du, 2008 ; Yeh , 2005)

would suggest th at fencing will do m ore harm t han good as an environm ental

protection tool.

Perception of and reaction to backwardness

At the root of this resource management paradigm is what Blaikie and

Muldavin (2004) call the rationalist expert-led model of truth and science


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228 A. CERNY

serving a larger political aim. This approach h as been top -down an d u n critical

of th e long-term an d po ten tially n egative effects of developm ent m easures on

people. Techn ological in n ovation s are treated as th e solution , when in fact th isis inap propriate for the grassland in Ch ina an d un derscores th e incon sistencies

within resource management regimes at various government levels (Brown et

al., 2008). Tuimu huancao and earlier grassland fen cing h ave been specifically

implement ed to con trol people under th e guise of environm ental protection

(Bauer, 2005; Yeh , 2005). Th ese restrictive policies h ave been a fun ction of th e

Han Ch inese sen sitivity abou t t h e backwardness of its peop le. It is a verita-

ble h istorical characteristic of Chin ese plann ing: policies are created b ased on

deeply-rooted beliefs in an evolutionary model whereby the mainstream Han

culture is at the top of the scale, where pastoralism is backward and ethnic

m ino rities in gen eral need h elp to b ecome civilized, an d sedent arized agricul-

ture represen ts a hallmark of developm ent (Daily, 2000; Xinh ua, 2007a) if n ot

modernization (Harrell, 1995; Longworth and Williamson, 1993; Longworth,

1995). In Ch inese official th inkin g there is n o place for th e idea of a mu ltiplic-

ity of historical trajectories.

In the early years of the reform era which began in 1978, the central

government was sensitive about the backwardness of the whole country

relative to the rest of the world. After the dramatic growth in prosperity

of th e eastern p rovinces, th e focus shifted to t h e less developed cities and

areas of the central and western provinces. Sometimes this is framed by

the central governments rhetoric as the entire region being backward

including technology and industry (State Council, 2003), sometimes

it refers only to the population, or segments of the population (Halik

an d Yan g, 2006). Luohou is the Chinese word for backward and being

a frequen t con cept in th e Chin ese m edia it is a t the forefron t of peoples

min ds . During myfi

eldwork, I foun d m any p eople in Xinjiang to b e self-conscious about it , em barrassed at t imes, and even referred to th emselves

and th e ir region as luohou. Th is was tru e of office workers, police officers,

a nd governme nt o f ficials as well as ordin ary citizens. Yet, even if th ey see

themselves as lacking relative to people in eastern provinces, the urban

citizens in t urn see th e no m ads as m ore backward still.

In each series of interviews with Kazak n om ads, I foun d t wo d istinct lines

of thin king: som e had in ternalized th e idea that th ey were backward or lower

on some p erceived scale of hum an worth iness, while oth ers expressed a fierce

pride in th e distinction of being Kazak. Th is came t o t he fore particularly in

questions about int ermarriage with oth er ethn ic groups an d questions about

the future. For the nomads who participated in the interviews I conducted

over several periods in fou r coun ties, wh at is at stake is their ability to exp ress

th eir culture th rough choice of livelihood , and th e very futu re of being Kazakin Xinjiang.

With o ver a million speakers and a robust presen ce in th e media, their lan-

guage is not imminently threatened. But with the environmental pressures,

th e TMHC fencing policies and th e overt inten tion s to settle th e nom ads in to


12/30



villages, th eir livelihood s and cultural identity are th reaten ed. Th e no mad s

perception of what development entails is based on a very basic premise.

That premise is that th ey own livestock, an d th ey live in accordan ce with th eneeds of their livestock so that their numbers may increase. Their livestock

are the b asis of the h ousehold incom e, the familys main source of cash flow

and the security for next year and every year beyond that. 5 Therefore, they

must align themselves with the optimal conditions for thriving herds and

flocks.

All of the above conditions contribute to the phenomenon at the heart

of this paper, that China Kazaks are welcoming the available exit strategy to

Kazakhstan as a way to con tinu e living in line with th eir values. The social

forces at work are subtle and persistent, while the overt external factors are

th e dire environ men tal con ditions in th e season al pastures back in Chin a.

Kazak nomads attitudes towards grazing land, livelihoods andemigration to Kazakhstan

The n om ads, tho ugh th ey see them selves as part of a greater cross-region al

Kazak population (this being a function of having been educated to see

themselves as a minzu or nationality in China), act on a very specific,

localized basis. They articulate a culture which is place-based, as well as

season ally an d geographically determined. They d o n ot consider migrat-

ing to an oth er coun ty, or outside of th eir ho m e province to imp rove their

fortunes, though certainly they have been exposed to this widespread

ph enom enon in recen t years of rural-urban and interprovincial migration

in Ch ina th rough th e media. They currently h ave grazing rights assigned

to them through liyongzheng or grassland utilization contracts which are

legally bin ding, n ational level docum ents. Unfortun ately, th ey are some-times defrauded, recently often pressured to sell off their rights and even

in t h e best cases, th e land allocated th rough th ese contracts is no longer

enou gh. The docum ents were issued in th e early 1980s to a generation of

adults who h ave since seen th eir children grow up and form th eir own fami-

lies. Th e older and th e youn ger generation s thu s share th e land specified in

th e cont ract, as n o n ew land is being allocated th is way. As each m ale head

of hou seho ld n eeds a certain n um ber of sh eep to support h is fam ily, this

puts additional sheep coun ts on th e same plot of land , and th us addition al

pressures on th e vegetation an d soil which in m any cases are already un able

to recover from th e previous years grazing. Due t o t h e depressed p rices for

sheep, families have faced trem end ou s econ om ic stresses for several years in

a row, which lead th em to act within a narrowly defin ed range of option s.

A few of th ese opt ion s: m aximizing n atural cycles, n egotiation of grasslan d

usage right s with ot h er fam ilies, settlemen t in to villages with fixed plots of

land, an d switching t o n ew professions, are sum m arized b riefly here.


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230 A. CERNY

The n omads continu e to m aximize their sheep m anagemen t by adjusting

th e timing on sheep breeding (through techn iques taught th rough th e gov-

ernm ent Animal Husbandry extension un its) and takin g advant age of tim ingin the seasonal cycles (for example earlier spring or earlier snows). Where

families h ave stron g social leverage th rough status in th e comm un ity or an

extensive lineage, negotiating access to more grass is a favoured strategy for

immediate relief to underfed livestock.

Settlement has been promoted by the Chinese central government for a

long t ime d ue to th eir own cultural biases; recent years have seen an increase

in both volun tary and less th an volun tary settlement . Settlement u sually en -

tails a brand new set of m ud-brick or con crete h ouses for th e fam ilies in th e

previously migrating village unit (Zukovsky, 2007). With this option, they

are encouraged to become farmers an d m aintain sh eep in a pen n ed location

or leave herding altogether to o pen a restauran t, drive a taxi and o th er such

small business livelihoods.

For some younger people, their parents seasonal migratory lifestyle is no

longer attractive, as they see it as too hard and uncomfortable a lifestyle,

especially if they h ave attend ed schools in town s or urban ized areas. There is

a natu ral sh ift towards settlement in th e youn ger generation. Equ ally palpable

in th e comm un ity consciousness is th e resistan ce to giving up season al migra-

tion s en tirely and a fear of bein g landless, by losing th e on e piece of lan d th ey

do h ave con trol over, specified in th eir grasslan d ut ilization con tract.

The attachment to grazing land and their ethnic heritage as nomads or

wide ranging pastoralists became one of two key factors they expressed in

interviews for th e desire to m ove to Kazakhstan . Th e principal reason is that

they know Kazakhstan is a large and sparsely inhabited country (in stark

cont rast t o Ch ina) and th ey believe they will be given, or gain access to, large

tracts of grazing land. Not only that, but the mens attitudes and responsesind icate a belief that t h eir problems of overgrazing, soil erosion and insuf-

ficient n utrition al value of th e grassland s will disappear (because th eir herds

will be able to spread ou t over th e land).

Th e second factor is to provide a bett er futu re for th eir ch ildren . In some

cases, the family has seen o ne or m ore mem bers of the exten ded family emi-

grate, and they rely on this person to help them emigrate successfully and

settle into life in Kazakhstan. This social attachment was expressed clearly

by some interviewees in Tuoli and also in Tekesi, both of which are adjacent

coun ties to th e Kazakhstan border region s.

Wh at is interesting abou t th e second factor is th at in earlier decades, th ese

particular coun ties may h ave been n oth ing mo re than sleepy backwaters n ear

a fortified border region. Most of Xinjiang was closed entirely to foreigners

until recent years. The dynamics of increasingly open trade, economic de-velopment and tourism with the newly emerged Central Asian states have

changed everything. The presence of Kazakhstan as the strongest player

amo n g th e Central Asian republics in particular, is h aving an imp act inside

Xinjiang. There is a perception of greater freedom of choice being available


14/30



to Kazaks in Kazakhstan. This perception of greater freedom is not to be dis-

coun ted, as th e examples of th e very real constraints and enclosures that t h e

n om ads en coun ter at h om e will illustrate.Below, I include quotes from interviews across several counties that show

the range of opinions on contemporary problems as well as solutions the

n om ads consider relevant . Thereafter, I include m ore in-depth stories of two

families with p lans for emigration to Kazakhstan .6 In on e family, one of th e

sons has already resettled in Almaty and in the other the young father has

strong motivations to move as an attempt to improve circumstances for his

children. They illustrate th e very emotion al basis of th eir vision for the future

of th eir families. Th e range of quotes is inten ded to illustrate the th ough tful-

n ess and th e quiet d esperation o f bein g a pastoral Kazak in Xin jian g.

The pervasive ecological and economic problems faced by the nomads

come to a h ead in th e issue of settlement, wh ich is the governm ents sec-

on dary plan of action t o address the environm ental problem faced by th e

users, withou t du e consideration of what n ew environm ental problems live-

stock im m obility will cause. At an eth ical level, settlemen t is a form of social

coercion. It overrides the wishes of a population that has expressed mixed

feelings about givin g up a m obile lifestyle, despite its on going h ardships.

Settlement was an easy topic to discuss with the nomads. The answers I

received covered th e wh ole spectrum from absolute refusal to com plete will-

ingn ess. Since I alm ost always interviewed th e head o f hou seh old, and th at

was almost always a man , my results are skewed by th e male perspective. Just

a few of them gave an in teresting d ual perspective such as, m y wife wan ts to

settle down . Sh e is tired of packing everyth ing an d m ovin g every few days. As

for me, th is is the on ly work I know, and I want to keep d oing it.

In the first qu otes, th e nom ads are bein g interviewed in th eir winter h om es,

wh ile in th e later quot es th e nom ads are in th eir summ er yurts. To refl

ect th evariety in responses, I have included multiple quotes from the interviews.

I have highlighted in bold the main issue in each quote for greater ease in

reading.

Nomad perspectives on settlement (winter residences)

If I could ch ange someth ing about m y life, I would wan t to live near

the city, to be able to settle down perman ently, and send my children

to schoo l to learn skills and gain knowledge to improve t h eir abilities.

Th is is the o n ly way for th em to h ave a better life. If I con tinu e to raise

livestock, my desire would be that we would have enough feed and

fodder to raise an im als in p en s. (Male, age 45)

I spent 38 years living as a nomadic herder; nothing ever changed. I

never saw any n ew changes. I would like to stop being a n om ad, I dont

always want to be so exhausted. [I would like] to settle down perma-

nently, to h ave som e land, an d to give my ch ildren a steady life. The


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232 A. CERNY

young people want to d evelop; they dont want to contin ue herding.

But if you want to gain knowledge and learn skills you need money

as a foun dation, and n ow th e cost of raising sheep is more th an th eincom e from th em. The small nu m ber of livestock th at we possess does

no t enable us to do th e other th ings we want t o do. (Male, age 48)

The nomadic herding profession does not make us very wealthy. For

generations we have been m aking our livin g by herdin g livestock. Our

children have to go to school but still cannot find any other kind of

work, and th ey have no land to farm . Th ese days n obody kn ows how

to meet their basic needs. The number of the poor is continually in-

creasing. The government encourages us try to become wealthy. But

the herdsmen havent seen [the government] do anything that has

been of ben efit to th em. (Male, age 64)

Wild anim als are th e creatures that origin ally existed in n ature, so we

have n o com plaint against th e wildlife. But we have been making our

living by raising livestock for generations. And if we are forced to

give up our livestock and grazin g land, we will have no oth er source of

liveliho od. (Male, age 60)

In 1970 I started working as a doctor in the herding unit. My family

m embers went to h erd. [discussion of several jobs, his education, an d

his ph ysical cond ition] I would like to open a restauran t bu t I have

no m on ey. I would like to farm, but I have no land. I want to wo rk, but

I have no job. If I take out a loan and there is no harvest in the fall,

then I wont be able to pay it back. So these days there is a saying:

most people today who are raising livestock are raising them for

the bank. (Male, age 52)

I would like to get rich, but h erding is imp overishm ent. At present th e

water and grass are being degraded , and it is not easy to raise live-

stock. We are on ly able to feed an d cloth e ourselves. (Male, age 67)

We have no land. In order to h ave a better life, of course we would like

to raise more livestock. But if we had m ore livestock, th ere would be n o

extra grasslan d. (Male, age 55)

My h usband is a driver for someon e else. His m on th ly salary is some-

where between 1,0001,500 yuan [at the time of interveiw between

USD $121181] ... we own some livestock, but not a large number. ...

working as herders has no future. The price of sheep is so low, and we

cant m ake an y mo ney, we already live at th e m ost basic level. Being

depend ent on such a sm all n um ber of cattle and sh eep, on such a sm allplot of land, and on my husbands small salary, what hope there to

speak about? (Female, age 23)


16/30



Fencing is okay ... as long as they keep open the migration routes

which t h e herders use to pass through . (Male, age unkn own )

I have been thinking about this for a long time. Th ere is no longer

any future in continuing to herd. Sheep are not worth mu ch right now.

If I were no t a n om ad, I still would have n o land to farm. You t ell me

what to d o! I h ave already men tion ed th is previously. Wh at would

we be able to do? If [our] land is taken over, what will we do? It is not

such an easy th ing to settle down perman ently. (Male, age 43)

Th ere is no solution besides enabling us to settle down p erman ently ...

at present we are on t he h orn s of a dilem m a. When we devote ourselves

to h erding alone, th ere is not enou gh grassland. If we devote ou rselves

to farming, th ere is n o land for th at either. What o n earth shall we do?

(Male, age 50)

Nomad perspectives on settlement (summer residences)

There is no reason to settle down . The migration is what is special

abou t o ur way o f life. (Male, age 39)

If th ey could settle one househo ld in th e family, then it wou ld help all

th e rest of th e mem bers of the big family. (Male, age 61)

If the grass was better, we h ad more land, we could sell more sheep

at bett er prices, th at wou ld be a bett er life. (Male, age 45)

If they could change any thing about their lives, to settle down wo uld

be a help. Second ly, doin g business would be good . If we co uld sell our

milk products, it would improve our lives. [Asking for examples he

elaborates:] camel or horse milk, other dairy; in this way we couldincrease our standard of living. Third, by going to the big city to

wo rk. [I could] w ork at the anim al market or in th e slaughterho use.

(Male, age over fifty)

The government encourages us to settle down. There are lots of

nomads who cant get used to being farmers. Some people are

afraid to change from nomads to farmers. There are some people

who have tried to be farmers. To settle is a new kind of lifestyle

for them. We have our own way of life , our own way of making a

living and an income. This origin is in selling the dairy products,

like camels milk, cream, [and meat]. [If] we can also rent other

peoples cows, we can make even more cream. At the moment,

since we make only just enough for themselves, we cant sell any.If we rented more cows, we could m ake more cream, and w e could

sell the surplus. (Male, age unkn own )

It is true th at m an y expressed a desire or a willingn ess to settle, yet th eir an xi-

eties run h igh. They are worried abou t th e costs of a ho use, the utilities, th e


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234 A. CERNY

taxes, when th ey already struggle to pay for th e th ings they n eed to bu y, like

flour an d salt for th emselves, and winter feed for the livestock. They wan t th e

best for their children and they stress that they want them to h ave more edu-cation than they themselves had, for which they are willing to shoulder the

costs and even settle into a h ouse. Upon closer scrutiny, their main concern

is land. They do not have enough now, and what if they settle? They want

more land from t he governm ent.

Man y expressed a desire to stay with a herd ing lifestyle full-tim e. Th e man

m ay ven ture th at it was th e only skill h e has, but in th e same breath say what

a great life it is to be ou t in n ature, herding th e sh eep to fin d bett er forage,

nurturing a really healthy herd that will sell well and breed well. It is the

Kazak way. Also, the meat is delicious and they support their families with

th e th ings they m ake them selves like yogurt, milk and ch eese.

At face value, there are more people who favour settlement. But just be-

low the surface of the willingness are the anxieties about how life will go

on . It is no accident t h at several of th em asked, wh at on earth sh all we do?

in this sample. It is a pervasive way of thinking, which is substantiated by

th e nu m bers th ey reported in oth er parts of th e interviews. At sheep sales

of 180 yuan p er sheep, th eir ho usehold incom e is in th e range of 1620,000

yuan per year (at the time, USD $1 equalled circa 8.2 yuan, thus a house-

hold income between $1,9512,439 per year). Their costs, which include

education and winterfeed for livestock as the two highest costs also come

to 1620,000 yuan. From their perspective, a good livelihood is a function

of higher incom es,from sheep. Very few men tion farmin g directly. Som e are

in favour, some exp ress dislike for it. Most int erviewees expressed a vision

where settlement includes their livestock.

Th e excerpts above show th e range of concerns th at n om ads have, but also

th e repetitive patt ern o f stress, an d th e repeated desire for lan d. We will sett leif th e governm ent gives us land . We are willin g to settle, and we need land

for our sheep. If we settle one relatives family, they can grow the seeds and

produ ce th e hay, so that th e rest of us can keep herdin g. Wh at th e nom ads do

n ot say is that th ey want to settle because th en t heir lives will get better.

Yirqin and Gulnur

Yirqin, n ot h is real nam e, has a youn g family in Tuoli coun ty. I selected h is

family because the ch ildren are very youn g and th e fath er expresses the d eep

concern he has for the education of his children in such a way that re flects

th e interviews I h ad with almo st all families. In several days of con versations,

h e proved very th ough tful about h is option s. His views exemplified th e eco-

n om ic tensions and h ope, versus th e ho pelessness th at n om adic Kazaks feel

about th eir situation in recent years. In particular, the will to contin ue being

nomadic is informed by grassland conditions and sale prices of sheep but

plays itself out in edu cation.


18/30



Yirqin at the time of our interviews had a three year old daughter and a

newborn son. He wants both of them to attend school easily and complete

th eir education. He is a sharp youn g man and asks frequent questions of hisint erviewer abou t th e world at large. His wife is bu sy from before sun rise un til

after dark with h ousework an d th e dairying activities aroun d th e robust herd

of 15 cows. He helps with childmin ding bu t watches wh ile she cooks, cleans

and scurries about. He has more time in the summer to relax than in other

seasons, an d h e does so. In addition , he sold off som e of his flock of sheep in

early summ er, to take advantage of the growing m arket for mo re tender lamb

meat, and to reduce the impact on his available grazing land. This leaves

h im with a smaller flock to tend to , while h e and h is wife have expan ded th e

herd of cows, so she has higher than average duties. He also shares usage of

h igher altitude grazin g lan d with m embers of his family, som e of whom h ave

th eir sum m er pastures just over and d own th e next ridge. All of these factors

dem on strate h im to b e a man who calculates his option s an d m akes strategic

decisions to take advantage of th e best on es available.

Looking over at his daughter while we talk, he says he wants to move to

Kazakhstan soon, an d expects to start th e process with in t wo years. He had

not begun the lengthy bureaucratic process yet, but h e had m ade up h is min d

to d o so. Th e reason: education and h ealth care are free in Kazakhstan . Th e

cost of educating the children is a huge burden on household finances for

n om adic families. Even with subsidies, th e children need un iform s, books,

room an d board at the school.7 Wh ere they live, she can att end Kazak lan-

guage schools, but the pressure in Xinjiang for ethnic minorities to attend

Chinese language schools is increasing year by year, an aspect Yirqin is not

amenable to.

The Kazaks worry as much as the Uighurs, a linguistically related ethnic

minority in Xinjiang, about the loss of language and cultural traditions forth eir people.8 All this worrying abou t schooling ch oices and p aying for them

will stop, he believes, when they emigrate. It will certainly be easier to raise

fat sh eep on larger pastures, which h e, like other m en I spoke to, assum ed as a

given. In sum, th e no mad s perceived solution to t h e lack of desirable ch oices

regarding both schoo ling and quality pastures within Ch ina is to emigrate to

Kazakhstan . Their own language is th e rein stated nation al language and th ey

h ave h eard that th e pastures are em pty du e to disuse.

Guln ur, also n ot h er real nam e, is a very strikin g woman . Sho rt and stout in

stature, she is th e mot h er of 10 children, all of them n ow grown up . One of

h er son s emigrated to Kazakh stan an d was hom e for a visit on on e occasion ,

sporting a h igh qu ality leather jacket and city fash ions. Gulnu rs hu sband is

a respected figure, having influen ce with th eir local leaders and th eir coun ty

town of Fuyun. The other sons herd livestock, and because of their goodconn ection s, th e fam ily has been able to secure additional grazing land and

swap a less favourable plot with a higher altitude, higher quality meadow

plot. Interacting with them over three seasons, I was privileged to witness

several scenes. In the spring, much excitement about the coming summer


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236 A. CERNY

season in th e mou n tains. In t he sum m er, sh ock and worry because of a figh t

in th e middle of the n ight with th e neighbou rs over access to grazin g rights

for sheep herds that left Gulnurs husband, a man of over 60, in need ofhospitalization in town some forty miles away, down slope. Finally, in the

winter, the youn gest of th e daught ers, who h ad been Gu lnu rs helpers with

th e work at th e summ er yurt, were busy with t he familys new restauran t in

town . Having been sent for cook trainin g in th e city for a few mon th s, th ey

were n ow back to h elp supp lement th e family in come.

In t h is fam ily, diversification of skills was a prim ary asset. Having bo th sev-

eral sons and several daught ers mean t th at th e son s could take on different

roles: two to do th e herdin g for th e entire family, som etimes with th e fath er,

and two to do th e fodder production and hay-making on agricultural land

provided in a nearby village. The daughters had married out or were help-

ing th e family with wage-producing labour during th e non -migratory winter

season wh en t h e parents stayed at th eir little hou se in town . As is customary,

the labour of the parents is supplanted by that of their children as they get

older.

Th e family is a vital social unit t hat h elps nom ads to survive both ecologi-

cally and econom ically. Th e fam ily unit is an inh erent system ic advan tage,

exercised on a daily basis to negotiate difficult econom ic an d po litical situa-

tions in the Xinjiang reality. Gulnur and her husband Serik have better op-

tion s than mo st, due to th eir 10 children spreading out across geograph ical

space and p rofessions, and p rovidin g services an d cash flow to th e well-being

of th e ent ire family. Th e son in Kazakhstan is already enlisted in m aking way

for more family members to join him. Ten children are unusual though in

todayspastoral fam ilies.

Current young families, where the average is three children, face a very

different set of economic and political circumstances from the last genera-tion of young parents. This task is daunting. They are in a less favourable

position than ever to gain political c lout with their local government, as

Serik, Gulnurs hu sband, was able to do in comm un ist t imes. With political

pressures of th eir own an d better com m un ication systems today, local-level

governm ent of ficials are less likely to tu rn a blin d eye or w ork ou t special

condition s for their man dates.

Yirqin, th e youn g fath er in Tuoli coun ty, h ad plans to m ove in about two

to t h ree years, sin ce they did no t yet h ave their paperwork, the p assports, exit

permission and so forth . He had already con sidered th at h e will need to sell

all his anim als and h ousehold good s, and was actively asking aroun d am on g

his contacts about wh at happens on the oth er side and how h e can buy n ew

livestock at a fair price in Kazakhstan. In oth er conversations h e men tion ed

h ow h e had h eard the qu ality of education was much better in Kazakhstan sschoo ls, an d an yway, h e was sure th at it was com pletely free of charge for all

grades. He thin ks he kno ws what t o expect from life in Ch ina for th e foresee-

able futu re, and he h as seen th e results amo ng h is peers. Looking out on his


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238 A. CERNY

worrisom e overgrazing, and make expensive fodd ering th rough winter n ec-

essary (Behn ke, 2003; Kerven, 20 03c; Kerven et al., 2008). Sim ilar hard ship s

resulting from t he eliminat ion o f collective practices and th e inh eren t h eavygovernm ent subsidization followed by th e privatization of former state ent er-

prises left rural residents in Kazakhstan in the lurch and facing new costs for

anim al feed an d breeding costs (Kerven, 2003a). Th e con straints t hat squeeze

n om adic Kazaks in recent years in Xinjiang are n ot m issing in Kazakhstan .

China Kazaks whom I interviewed are basing their preference to move

on a nave assumption about land. Land can be available for free, but only

when families are accepted under the oralman quota. The dem and for oral-

m an status is far greater than th e supp ly. Alth ou gh larger areas of Kazakhstan

are theoretically open for settlemen t with a far lower population per square

kilometre than in China (and there is no competition for land from in-

m igrating Han agriculturalists from oth er provinces), land use in Kazakhstan

h as its stains from th e past. The pastures in Kazakhstan suffered t heir own

years of severe degradation th rough overstocking an d it is only very recently

that some ecological zones and plant types are showing signs of recovery

(Alimaev, 2003).

With striking similarities to the last decade in Xinjiang, the market for

sheep in Kazakhstan went through extreme instability in the 1990s and

sheep h erders were forced to sell off th eir herd s at low prices to gain access to

cash and were left drastically im poverish ed. Th is in turn left an un level play-

in g field with a few wealthy, well positioned landowners and a broad base

of pastoralists barely making ends meet from year to year. The reforms that

followed led to m ore int ensive village-level grazin g (Beh n ke, 2003). In recent

years, though, economic conditions had improved for the whole country,

raisin g incom es also for rural residen ts (OHara an d Gen tile, 2009). Eviden ce

suggests that herding families are able to apply strategies for increasing theirh oldings and building t h eir familys wealth (Kerven et al. , 2008), but th is may

reflect opportun ities for nat ive-born mo re th an oralman Kazaks. It rem ains t o

be studied in more comprehensive research how exactly the China Kazak

pastoralists wh o emigrate and become oralman fare in th eir n ew count ry.

The conditions of too high livestock densities and economic instability

that occurred in Kazakhstan can be compared to the situation created by

the TMHC policy and settlement measures that fence off migration routes

and reduce Chin a Kazaks to int ensive local grazing an d a d own ward spiral of

econo mic h ardship.

For all of these reasons above, the freedom to seasonally migrate

that is strongly present in the China Kazaks aspirations for moving to

Kazakhstan has been an illusion, while the support system is possibly

worse than at home. Xinjiang has pastoral and agricultural extensionservices, which, although flawed, are available on a regular basis to all

nomads. All pastoral counties have Animal Husbandry Bureaux, with a

provin cial level bureau in Urum qi, the capital, in ch arge of implemen ting

n ation al policy and m anagin g all livestock-related research and services.


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Such services in Kazakhstan are reportedly no n -existent o r were abruptly

discont inu ed fol lowing th e formation of the n ew sta tes in th e early 1990s

(Kerven et al. , 2002). In con sisten cy oforalman-related policy imp lemen ta-tion am on g levels of governm ent an d oblast and corrupt ion (Kusku, 2008)

add con siderable risk to th e imm igration plans of incom ing families.

Last but not least among the constraints on a sustainable livelihood

remains th e issue of distan ce. Being located far from u rban markets with lim-

ited access to marketin g systems h as been a p ervasive problem for increasin g

pastoral incomes in China (Cerny, 2008), Kazakhstan (Kerven, 2003b, c) as

elsewhere (Davies and Hatfield, 2008; Marin, 2008). In a past study I wrote

extensively about th e logistical incon sistencies such as poor roads an d p oor

supply chains th at contribute to the poverty of nomads, even when they pro-

duce h igh qu ality sheep an d d airy products for sale (Cerny, 2008). The Ch ina

Kazaks who h ave become oralman are lauded for being m ore entrepreneurial

and more adept at setting up new marketing structures at the village level

and in areas where infrastructures collapsed with th e dem ise of th e collec-

tivized system (San cak and Finke, 2005 ). Yet rural to urban an d in ter-oblast

income discrepancies (OHara and Gentile, 2009) as well as tensions with

n ative residen ts over jobs, degrees of Kazakness an d o th er m atters (Diener,

2005; Kusku, 2008; Sancak, 2007) indicate that economic and social instabil-

ity will be th e norm for som e time to come.

In add ition to t h e sim ilarities in p oor access to land resources an d sustained

econom ic instability, th e socio-cultural advan tages that Ch ina Kazaks seek in

their desire to move to Kazakhstan are also not supported by reports on oral-

man social integration . First, th e free education is plagued by t h e same p rob-

lems as rural education in Xinjiang. The schools are in low quality buildings

and teaching staff are substandard with low morale (UNDP, 2006). Even just

a few years ago, m any rural sch ools had closed or faced constan t sh ortages ofm aterials, staff and h eating (IRIN, 2004a). Alth ough Ch ina Kazaks speak th e

n ewly instated n ation al langu age, an d are freed from t h e pressure to have th eir

children educated in Chinese language schools, most China Kazaks are used

to Arabic-based script while the older generations were taught in Romanized

Kazak. Kazak language in Kazakhstan is Cyrillic-based and this has contributed

to less than seam less integration of th e n ew imm igran ts (Diener, 2005; UNDP,

2006). It is true th at children en tering sch ool in Kazakh stan an d youn ger peo-

ple will adapt m ore easily to Cyrillic-based Kazak so t h at with in a generation

this gap should be eliminated.

The reunification o f the Kazak broth erhood which Kazakhstan aspires to

is not com ing to fruition easily. Th e count ry has fallen short of quickly int e-

grating new immigrants and fostering brotherhood among all Kazaks. New

imm igrant s face a sketchy suppo rt system th at is inadequate in key areas, notleast among them the quota that falls far short of demand, the inconsistent

delivery of services, and th e lack of services provided t o p eople wh o get clas-

sified ou tside th e quo ta (UNDP, 2006; Kusku, 2008).


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240 A. CERNY

Nations th at successfully integrate new imm igrants do so with cultu ral and

civic instruction, in addition to language training. China Kazaks, though

close in m any cultural practices nevertheless lack kn owledge of how th ingsare done in Kazakhstan . It causes them to rely on th e trial and error m etho d,

or th eir own relatives who h ave emigrated earlier, and also leaves th em vul-

n erable to abusive and corrupt p ractices. In short, th e lack of preparedness

and thoroughness oforalman integration leaves China Kazaks to remain as

second-class citizens. They may simply be switching one such status for an-

oth er. Yet, worse still th an bein g treated as secon d-class citizens is th e risk of

bein g classified as stateless. Th is pertains t o p erson s who h ave given u p t h eir

Ch inese (or oth er) citizensh ip to b e gran ted th e righ t to residency in Kazakh-

stan, but who are subsequently denied Kazak citizenship (IRIN, 2004b).

Conclusions

The ph enom enon of Chin a Kazaks want ing to em igrate to Kazakhstan is born

in the present situation of acute economic stress among nomadic families,

brough t abou t by on going ecological problems, past po licies th at did n ot fac-

tor in n atural reproduction rates and thu s did n ot anticipate the current n um -

bers of families and sheep, and presen t p olicies th at are coun ter-produ ctive to

th riving pastoral livelihoo ds an d th e recovery of th e grassland resource.

Extensive interviews in coun ties of all m ajor pastoral prefectures in n orth -

ern Xinjiang provide evidence of clear wishes for the future. Settlement is

acceptable to some, but they want land to go with it. The men desire live-

stock-centred occupation s in almost all cases, and m any wish t o keep h erding

either full-time or at least part-time. Very few accept agriculture as an occu-

pation, while some are amenable to sedentary fodder production as one of

the strategies among family members. They associate settlement, agricultureand a stoppage of all migratory activities in t he family to b e a th reat to th eir

cultural iden tity. They desire to m aintain an d strength en th eir cultural iden -

tity, wh ile assim ilation into a greater Ch inese identity is no t acceptable. Th e

com bin ation of all factors econ om ic, ecological an d socio-political is wh at

h as man y Ch ina Kazaks asserting a desire to leave for Kazakhstan .

Their field of vision word of m outh is a stron g meth od of comm un ication

for them and their access to media continues to expand remains limited.

It is th e opinion of this researcher, that altho ugh econom ic con ditions h ave

imp roved in Kazakhstan in t h e last several years, with edu cation being on e

sector th at m ay be seeing im provemen t in t h e sh ort-term , Chin a Kazaks have

suffered from the mirage effect. The grass appeared greener to them from

inside Chin a, but m oving to Kazakhstan in m ost cases may no t create a solu-

tion to th eir problem s. Many o f the issues they face in th eir day-to-day strug-

gles as sheep herdin g, migratory people, in less than abun dan t grassland , are

consistent with recent reality in Kazakhstan. They are still con fron ted with

th e n ew reality of learn ing to live in a still rather d ifferent culture.


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The Chin a Kazaks lack a deeper un derstandin g of th e en vironm ent al hazards

that exist in some rural areas of Kazakhstan, from water shortages to radia-

tion cont amin ation (Agricultu re, 2006). Th ey lack an appreciation for th e newhardships that await them as they negotiate past bribe-seeking officials, await

th eir turn for housing, and struggle to bring th eir sheep to m arket on ce again.

They believe that they will be Kazaks among Kazaks, whereas the evidence

suggests they o n ly become second -class citizen s again , out cast on ce mo re for

their backwardness (Sadovskaya, 2007; Sancak, 2007). The Kazakhstan gov-

ernmen t h as th e last say in where the oralman get placed (Kazakhstan, 2005)

and mo ving from o ne exhausted grassland to an oth er cann ot be seen as a gain.

Kazakhstan sees th e oralman programme as a way to increase its population

and restore a Kazak ethnic majority. It is not an environmental management

policy, nor part of a greater plan to promote sustainable development of the

domestic grassland resources.

Kazakhstans oralman programme is not directly supportive of nomadism,

while Chinas tuimu huancao policy is directly an d in directly support ive of

settlemen t. As Davies and Hatfield (2008) succinctly state, few governments

are ready to to lerate mo bile livestock production and m any p ursue explicit or

inadvertent policies of settlement . Wh at remain s to be seen are th e integra-

tion of soun d science in t h e formulation of differen tiated, sustainable poli-

cies, and th e governm ents acknowledgement of th e suitability of a pastoral

livelih ood to t h e vast stretches of lan d th ey have un successfully converted

or attempted to convert for agriculture and intensive development. That is

to say, a political agen da currently supersedes soun d lan d m anagemen t as a

priority of policy m aking and governan ce in bot h cou nt ries.

Despite all of these caveats, th e centrepiece of th is story is th at th e Ch ina

Kazaks are willing to face all risks and venture into the unknown because

they are so certain they have more to gain by leaving than by staying.Given th e option s available to them at hom e, th ey would rath er pack up their

household goods one more time and cross a border. Faced with the upcom-

ing settlement into villages as part of the d evelopm ent sch emes for Xinjiang,

they seek a different future. Looking down at the vegetation stubble in the

summ er pastures that were waist high an d copious in th eir livin g mem ories,

they feel at a loss. Rather than giving up on herding and moving to town,

th ey prefer to apply for exit pap ers and mo ve to Kazakhstan , where th ey have

h eard th e grass is greener.

As so often with th e nom ads of th e world, th ey do th eir best to cope with

th e reality aroun d th em, wh ile so much of that reality remain s stacked again st

the m.

Notes

1. There was a prior exodus by Kazaks out of China in 1962 and th ere are periodicwinter calamities called dzud, but while the former was political and the latter


25/30


242 A. CERNY

are environm ental, neither is a coming togeth er of both political and ecologicalconstraints, as in th is current situation.

2. I interviewed families in Yili Prefecture and Mulei coun ties in 2004, and Tuoliand Fuyun coun ties in 20062007. In all cases I was accompan ied by an assistantwho se main respon sibility was translation from Kazak to Chin ese. In 2004, I con -ducted short-term visits to summer pastures. With permissions in hand, I livedon location with different families during spring and summer of 2006 to betterobserve the social rhyth ms an d livestock. I also supervised a n om adic survey don eon behalf of a Smithsonian wildlife project in early winter 20062007 in FuyunCounty.

3. Personal comm un ication with Kazakhstan min istry level officials du ring a visit toSeattle, May 20 08.

4. Items from th ese sources tran slated int o En glish as developin g agriculture byrelying on science, technology and education in the countryside, and realizingsustainable development. Or, more opaquely: every means to find a sustainableagricultural developm ent m ode th at canno t on ly increase th e output o f grain andoth er farm p roduce, but also help imp rove the ecological environ men t have beena main stay of central governm ent reports.

5. Families h ave very stron g social bon ds. Ind ividuals or sub-un its of th e larger fam-ily th at are prospering will come to th e aid of family memb ers who n eed mon ey.More and m ore, family memb ers also draw incom e from employm ent. This is par-ticularly true of young people, who pursue a range of wage-based activities whenth ey are available locally.

6. I have renam ed th em Yirqin and Gulnu r to protect their identities.7. In recent decades, man y nom adic children have been educated in town -based

boarding schools while their parents migrate with the livestock. The families arereunited during the summer holidays.

8. Education is a hot iron in Xinjiang in th e past decade, as education policy hasseen th e imposition o f new restrictions and th e closure of ethn ic language classes.Even ethn ic min ority faculty teaching a class of exclusively ethn ic mino rity stu-dents are required to teach in Chin ese. Parents of young children debate wh etherto send their offspring to Chinese school to increase their professional chanceslater, wh ile evidence from families of Chin ese schoo l-educated youn g adults sh ow

th at a d ramatic loss of native language skills occurs, including both speaking an dwriting skills. Both the p arents and th e youn g people them selves affirmed th is ininterviews. I also learned to pick my assistants very carefully, because urban edu-cated Kazaks did no t n ecessarily have fluent enou gh speaking and reading skills inKazak lan guage.

9. I was able to interview one family packed and on th e move to Kazakhstan. It wascosting th em 2,000 yuan (about USD $244 in 2006) to m ove from Fuh ai coun ty.

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