Next year will be the tenth anniversary of independent Kazakhstan when exiled ethnic Kazakhs living outside the country of their ancestors could return home.. It is officially estimated that four million Kazakhs, mainly descendents of those who fled Stalinist repression, the starvation of the thirties, and collectivization, still live outside of Kazakhstan, mainly in China, Iran, Turkey, and Mongolia. Unlike its next-door neighbor Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan the ninth largest country in the world is not densely populated. In the face of the continuing emigration of the Russian-speaking population from the country, the inflow of repatriates, or oralmans to use the recently coined term, is applauded by the government.

Traditionally, Kazakhs inhabited rural areas suitable for their age-long occupation of cattle breeding and farming, while the majority of Russians were sent to the Kazakhstan during the virgin lands cultivation and industrialization campaign to took up jobs in industrial sectors. As most of them moved back to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, industrial enterprises were left short of qualified workers. To mend the situation, the government has increased the quota for applicants who wish to enter the engineering and technical departments at universities. Kazakh repatriates are offered similar privileges to pass entrance exams. Such measures, paired with recent regulations making it easier for repatriates to obtain Kazakh citizenship and integrate into the new environment, are stimulating the immigration process.

The Northern Kazakhstan Regional Immigration Office states that 3,869 Kazakh repatriates were resettled in the region during the last 10 years. In the same period, the depopulation was glaring. In the first half of 2000, emigrants outnumbered immigrants from other countries and regions by 4,035 people. During the first years of independence, the Kazakh government proved to be ill prepared to provide the growing number of repatriates with housing and jobs. This slowed immigration for some time, but recently the resettlement of 500 Kazakh families from abroad is on the government agenda again. Not long ago, a major government official over-optimistically declared that the population of Kazakhstan will grow from the present total of slightly over 15 million, to 25 million by the year 2030. This unsubstantiated prophecy provoked sarcastic remarks in the press.

Addressing the First Regional Congress of Repatriates, which convened in July, the Governor of the Northern Kazakhstan Region announced his program aimed at improving their social conditions. The program includes allotments of plots of land, housing, and financial support for private business initiatives. Some delegates attending the congress quoted a Kazakh proverb saying that "it is better to be a slave in your homeland, than to be a ruler in a foreign country." However patriotic, sentiments alone cannot improve the deteriorating demographic situation. During 1993-1999 over two million people left the country.

Marat Yermukanov, Correspondent, Tribuna, Petropavlosk city funded newspaper Regional Correspondent, Panorama, independent weekly, Almaty, Kazakhstan.