RESUMO
Post-imperial ethnic identities and divides are often constructed and construed through direct and indirect references to imperial legacies. In this study, we use nationally representative survey data to examine proficiency, use, and valuation of the Russian language - a major such legacy of the Soviet empire - in Kyrgyzstan, a multiethnic Central Asian nation with a long and complex history of ethnic and regional cleavages. The multivariable analyses produce instructive net variations in Russian proficiency and use across regional subgroups of ethnic Kyrgyz, the titular ethnicity, and between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, a marginalized ethnic minority. The analyses also show that the command and use of Russian increase with community ethnic heterogeneity. Yet, no variations along these axes are found in the perceived importance of Russian language knowledge for success in the domestic labour market. These findings are situated within the interconnected contexts of historical ethnolinguistic legacies, dynamics of nation-building, and geopolitics.
RESUMO
Considerable research in western, low-fertility contexts has examined minority-vs.-majority fertility differentials, typically focusing on minority groups' cultural idiosyncrasies and on socioeconomic disadvantages associated with minority status. However, the formation and functioning of ethnic complexities outside the western world often diverge from the standard western model and so may their impact on fertility preferences, behavior, and outcomes. We expand on the previous research by analyzing ethnic variation in completed and desired fertility in the multiethnic transitional setting of Kyrgyzstan, where ethnic groups and their ethnolinguistic subparts are characterized by both different stages of the demographic transition and different positioning in the socioeconomic and political hierarchies. Using combined data from two rounds of a nationally representative survey, we find that ethnic-specific levels of completed fertility generally align with culturally shaped group-level normative propensities. In contrast, in desires to have a(nother) child, the ranking of the ethnic segments is more reflective of their collective societal positioning, with more disadvantaged segments having lower fertility desires, regardless of actual number of children and various other characteristics. We also find that ethnic homophily of respondents' social milieu and their optimism about the future of their ethnic group are positively associated with fertility desires, even though these associations are more potently present among women, compared to men. We relate our findings to the extant scholarship and reflect on their implications for a better understanding of ethno-racial fertility dynamics and differentials in transitional contexts.
RESUMO
To keep childbearing that occurs before and after migration separate from each other, many analysts apply a technique that uses 'negative durations' to estimate the childbearing risks that migrants have before they migrate. This strategy can lead to incorrect results and should be abandoned. In this research note, we use data for births and internal migration in Sweden to highlight how the two types of behaviour can be kept apart conceptually and analytically without use of 'negative durations'. The procedures used can easily be generalized to any similarly linked pair of behaviours.
RESUMO
The demographic literature on union formation in post-communist Europe typically documents retreat from marriage and increase in cohabitation. However, sociological and anthropological studies of post-Soviet Central Asia often point to a resurgence of various traditional norms and practices, including those surrounding marriage, that were suppressed under Soviet rule. We engage these two perspectives on union formation by analyzing transition to first marriage in Kyrgyzstan both before and after the collapse of the USSR. We use uniquely detailed marriage histories from a nationally representative survey conducted in the period 2011-2012 to examine the dynamics of traditional marital practices among that country's two main ethnic groups-Kyrgyz and Uzbeks-focusing on trends in arranged marriages and in marriages involving bride kidnapping. The analysis reveals instructive ethnic and period differences but also indicates an overall decline in the risks of both types of traditional marriage practices in the post-Soviet era. In fact, although the decline has characterized all marriage types, it was more substantial for traditional marriages. We interpret these trends as evidence of continuing modernization of nuptiality behavior in the region.
