Survey of Expats About Life in Kazakhstan
Kazakhnomad has yet another interesting series of posts up on a survey she did of expats living in Kazakhstan. If you start from that post and go forward in time, you’ll be able to see all the questions and results.
I thought it might be fun to answer the questions myself as well, or at least the ones that she put up on her blog. I can really only give my impressions of life in Astana because this is the only part of Kazakhstan I have ever really lived in. I’ve also linked the questions to the post where Kazakhnomad talks about her results.
What is the most common question asked of you by Kazakhs?
Are you married? Is your family here or in the US? Are you a volunteer or do you work for the Embassy? Are you parents still alive? Is it cold in the US like in Astana?
Kazakhstan can be a challenging place to live, even for the locals, what bothers you as a foreigner the most?
The brusqueness of people on the street and lack of common courtesy, lack of customer service, things break all the time and fixing them is difficult, the cold weather, the constant changing as stores close or move to new locations, company and government policies change constantly so you never know what is going on.
What is the most onerous thing about living in Kazakhstan?
Suggested answers:
1. disparity of income in cities of KZ compared to the rural areas
Bothers me, but doesn’t affect me. What bothers me more is the lack of attention to the poor quality of life outside Astana and Almaty.
2. old Soviet era methods of doing things
Very much so. Bureacracy is king and filling out pieces of paper is the national sport.
3. politics in this new “democracy” with residual nepotism
Again, doesn’t affect me directly, but bothers me.
4. traffic gridlock and cars getting too close to pedestrians
As a driver, I can say that the gridlock isn’t too bad–although the fact that it is constant and unpredictable is awful. The psychotic drivers are a real problem. And the psychotic parkers, c.f. lack of common courtesy.
5. air pollution or cold weather or both
Both, yes.
6. police and their wand wave for trumped up fines to drivers
It’s not the trumped up fines. It’s the fact that they take away your license or impound your car for any violation. And they make you wait while the tow truck comes. No matter how cold it is. Then they try to chat with you as if you are friends. “So how do you like Kazakhstan? Have you tried beshbarmak?” Sir, you are towing my car to God knows where because it was dirty, I don’t want to talk to you.
7. laws that are too complex to understand about visas and work permits
More the constant changing of the laws and the fact that no one ever gives you clear and complete instructions. They tell you you need document A, then when you bring that, they tell you that you also need document B, then when you bring A and B, you find out you need a physical from the hospital, so you bring that but you find out that you went to the wrong hospital. Etcetera.
8. feeling cheated or feeling like you are not wanted in Kazakhstan
Feeling cheated, definitely. It seems to me the mentality here to suck the marrow out of workers by piling more and more work on them without increasing their salaries or any kind of benefits.
What is the most precious memory you have had when dining in a Kazakh friend’s home? If it hasn’t happened yet, just wait, it will.
Being served sheep ear and a huge hunk of fat, like 1/4 pound of fat, and being told these were the most precious pieces of meat and a great honor. Realizing I would have to eat them and like it. It was really sweet of them to honor me in that way, and it wasn’t the worst thing I have ever eaten in my life. After a few bites, they figured out I wasn’t really enjoying the fat and I got some meat to mix it up with, which was nice.
Kazakh people are known for their generosity, peacefulness and hospitality. T or F
They are known for it, but generosity and hospitality only extends to family and friends and superiors (bosses, celebrities, the rich or the powerful). To strangers, the Kazakh people (like all former Soviet people) are very brusque or even rude.
Kazakh people are known for their hypersensitivity and holding grudges. T or F
Only when it comes to Borat.
How much does it bother you when you go home from Kazakhstan to your friends and family and they ask you “How is life in Russia?
That rarely happens. It bothers me more when I talk to my bank or a customer service center and they ask me what state Kazakhstan is in, or why I can’t come to a branch store to deal with my problem. You’d think the computer would tell them where Kazakhstan is, if they don’t know it’s a foreign country. That being said, can the world decide if they think Kazakhstan is part of the European zone, the Middle East zone, or Asia?
How do you think we, as foreigners living in Kazakhstan, can help create a better image about this great land of Kazakhstan?
I don’t think we have a responsibility to do so, but writing and telling the truth about life here is probably the best way. That means the good and the bad. The problem with the campaign to have foreigners only write good things about Kazakhstan (i.e. these paid advertisements written by foreign journalists) is that no one believes them. The truth is usually a mixture of good and bad.
Do you think this upcoming O.S.C.E. conference in Astana (Dec. 1-2) will make a difference for Kazakhstan?
I have the benefit of hindsight, but no. The OSCE is not popularly known in the world, the summit didn’t make international news and most places that have declarations named after them are not famous for that. Have you ever heard of anyone going to Geneva to see the place where the Convention was signed?
And of course the way international news travels, Kazakhstan gets international press attention even when it isn’t hosting a summit. So the OSCE summit may have some positive effect but if there is a scandal tomorrow, that will get attention too.
Do you believe that Kazakhstan will reach its goal to be one of the top 50 countries by the year 2030?
Well, it was 51st the year they announced this goal, 2005. The next year, it went down to 56th place. It was 67th last year and now it’s 72nd. So the trend appears to be downwards not upwards. But by 2030, I think it is possible. Reduce the bureaucracy and the corruption, make laws and policies from the point of view of the users (i.e. citizens and businesses), and start really innovating instead of just copying ideas from the West and Russia. The people of Kazakhstan are well educated, intelligent, persistent, and hard working.
So what do my expat readers think? Any answers to these questions?
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Very interesting, I really liked that.
I’m flattered that you used my survey format! I’m sure you could add some good questions of your own and I LOVED your answers! Thanks!
Interestingly, re: old Soviet methods. I was talking to some people the other day and they said that in Soviet times there wasn’t nearly as much paperwork. As in America, you would bring an original of a document to a government office, they would check it, and then give it back. None of these copies with notary stamps or a hundred different forms to fill out. So this is a new independent Kazakhstan thing apparently. I shudder to think how many copies of my ID and RNN are out there in the world and how many people have access to them.
But I thought your survey was very interesting and I hope other people will comment on it and give their opinions.
There was much more control in the USSR: the state knew where you live, where you work, who’s your spouse, how much do you earn, and even more. A lot of things just couldn’t be done without its approval.
I believe today’s “red tape” in former Soviet republics (cause it’s huge not only in KZ), is an attempt to maintain at least a comparable level of control over things in a much more unrestricted environment.
That’s an interesting point. It makes sense that when the government is everything and everything is the government that you would need less paperwork. I’m actually working now on a post about the costs of all this bureaucracy now.
[…] just as the comment thread on Surveys of Expats about Life in Kazakhstan turned to bureaucracy, I came across a report on the automatization of government services for […]
A late reply, I know, but I think that the crazy driving style is limited to Astana and Shymkent. I think here in Almaty drivers are very courteous (bar the bus drivers), even stopping for pedestrians! Pretty much agree on everything else, though….
Interesting. That isn’t my impression when I drive in taxicabs from the airport at Almaty. But maybe they just get crazy outside the city center. And of course the traffic in Almaty is much worse than in Astana, so maybe that keeps people a bit more sane.
Yes, I think there is a difference between the outskirts populated by ex-countryside people, and the centre (for now) still dominated by Almaty-born people. Most taxi drivers and bus drivers in Almaty are from the South or refugee Karakalpaks. That explains it for me.
Since there’s nothing to do in Kazakhstan, I spend a lot of time analyzing all the things you’ve mentioned. I just wanted to touch on the bureaucracy/red tape thing. Many things are done to placate inspectors of one form or another. The inspectors are supposed to be some sort of quality control, but they are kind of the opposite in practice. Everyone gets together before they come and create documents to show that they’ve been following procedures. They haven’t been, but so long as they have documents to prove they have been, even though they haven’t, it’s enough. Inspectors are always treated to good food and little gifts as if they were some welcome diplomats. In fact, it is expected that they will get something from the inspectees else they will find points of failure. Of course this is just corruption which exists here at the grass roots level and climbs upwards.
I believe that the archaic collection of reams of useless paperwork is connected to job security at the highest levels and at the inspector level. For example, if the minister of education dared to streamline a process, he may eventually be out of a job. Instead, he clings to the security of traditions, as that means employment, and even adds baggage to the system as new methods come into play, never discarding anything archaic. This ensures that he is always the expert and the boss, though the only growth he has had in the past 30 years is in his prodigious, Kazakh, horse-eating belly.
Should efficiency ever come into play, he and all his underlings, inspectors included, would be out on their asses.
Of course, this is just what I see, and also what I’ve seen in tajikistan which is nearly a mere image of Kazakhstan save for the income disparity at middle and low levels.
I have lived in Almaty for almost 3 years and share the mixed feelings that are inevitably obvious in these posts. Because I work for a large university, I haven’t worried at all about paperwork– getting a flat is easier than I have every seen in 20 countries, and they handle the visa etc. for me. The petty bureaucratic corruption is terrible mostly on the roads, but since I don’t drive, that’s not a problem. Central Asia is my only post-Soviet experience, but I have found much less obstructionism than in most other countries. True, there is a lot of blank looks toward strangers, I guess both because of Soviet and nomad histories, but overall I still find people here overwhelmingly friendly and helpful… as long as you show even a little respect by learning as much language as possible. I spoke to a large group at a conference and got lots of applause just by saying “hello” in Kazakh! Showing a little friendly courtesy toward servers etc. and treating them as humans (which many locals don’t) has always paid off. Older people are hung up on power games, but few young people are. It is harder to learn about events in the city than in other countries, but possible. I suggest forming connections with a few locals more than expats (more enjoyable anyway) who will almost always help you. However, Almaty and Astana have caught the over-busy bug, so many people would like to help but are really hectic. I suggest that nobody gets neurotic about the negative differences but instead wallow in the positive ones. In sum, I really like Kazakhstan and plan to stay here. Glad to offer any specific comments to anyone who sends me a question or two.
I have been studying Russian for two years with a private teacher here in the US. I have never been to a Russian-speaking land but would like to spend a summer somewhere just to live in the language.
Russia has now become very difficult for Americans to get a visa just to hang out and learn. You have to be enrolled in a university and even then, for an American, that can be quite challenging.
Ukraine presents a different issue. As a Jew I would have to deal with a lot of open anti-Semitism. Not to my liking. My secretary, who is from that area, told me, Well, if we call you a dirty Jew it is not personal, you understand. It’s just a cultural thing.
So I am considering Kazakhstan.
Any suggestions or comments? I looked up some of the universities but they say I must spend a year learning Russian before I can take classes. I can already speak, read and write to my own satisfaction. My teacher believes I can do university level work. But I just want to live with a family ( would pay, of course) and use the language.
Thanks for any feedback!!