Tolerance label — justified or not? (Withdrawn, not presented at the meeting)

Sabira Kulsariyeva, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
Anel Sharipova, Kazakh National Pedagogical University Abai

The population of Kazakhstan today has cardinally changed the attitude towards migrants. In the late 1930s Kazakhstan (at that time one of the Soviet Union republics) was a monoethnic nation. Changes in the population composition has occurred as a result of one of the most violent phenomena of Stalin's epoch when millions of so called "unreliable" nations – Koreans in the Far East, the peoples of the Caucasus and the Crimea, Greeks, Poles and Germans, – were forcedly deported to Kazakhstan. At the end of the violent transfer those people were disembarked from the train cars and left in the desert without roof over their heads, with no provision supplies or whatsoever personal belongings. On a large scale the local population had helped the deported people to survive sheltering and supporting them, despite of the Soviet's authorities' punitive measures against such activity. The attitude has continued when the deported peoples were rehabilitated. In fact, many ethnic groups were able to integrate into Kazakh society, to occupy certain niches of the economy and have become fully responsible citizens. Every nation has its cultural centers, and all nations has formed the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan. But even in spite the fact that Kazakhs consider themselves as a tolerant ethnic group, the problem of youth's views on immigration rates in Kazakhstan nowadays remains daunting. A sociological survey was conducted in two major universities in Almaty. The response poll showed that today youth does not always act sympathetically towards the migrants, and students do not consider it necessary to show positive attitudes to people not in distress. An accepting and hospitable community, which Kazakhstani society has always been for the migrants, happens not to be as tolerant as before. So is the label of tolerance justified today?