Catherine Alexander gave a talk in our visiting seminar on 23rd November 2018 titled “Indeterminate classifications: being ‘more than kin’ in Kazakhstan”.
Abstract:
Prompted by the relatively small Kazakh population in Kazakhstan after the end of the Soviet Union, the Kazakh government has formally welcomed back Kazakh expatriates. Based on long-term fieldwork in Kazakhstan’s former capital Almaty, thischapter examines how repatriates are simultaneously courted and rejected by officials and longer-standing citizens alike. Exploring these responses, alongside the repatriates’ own varied experiences of return, the chapter suggests repatriates incarnate a threatening categorical excess and ambiguity, appearing more authentic than other citizens and conflating distinct times and domains.