SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF QANDAS IN KAZAKHSTAN: FACTORS AND AN ANALYTICAL TYPOLOGY OF INTEGRATION PROFILES

• Zhanar Yermekbayeva

  Institute of applied ethnopolitical research

  Author

This article examines internal social heterogeneity among qandas in Kazakhstan and develops a working analytical typology of integration profiles. The empirical basis is the aggregated output of a 2021 mixed-method study conducted by the Institute of Applied Ethnopolitical Research, which included a face-to-face survey of 4,000 returnees in 17 regions, in-depth interviews, and media monitoring. The present analysis uses published quantitative distributions to examine the economic, housing, social, institutional, and subjective dimensions of integration. The findings show that a strong sense of local belonging and positive self-assessments of adaptation coexist with income vulnerability, regional disparities in housing security, and employment-related barriers. Region-of-residence choices are shaped primarily by kinship and co-ethnic networks, while labor-market opportunities play a secondary role. This pattern reveals the ambivalent function of social capital: it reduces the costs of initial adaptation but does not by itself secure sustainable economic incorporation. Combining resource position, subjective adaptation, and institutional constraints, the article proposes four ideal types: resource-secure, adapted with limited resources, economically incorporated but institutionally constrained, and vulnerable. The typology is not presented as the outcome of statistical clustering of microdata, it is an analytical model designed for subsequent empirical validation. The study contributes to the literature by shifting attention from an average portrait of qandas to mechanisms of within-group differentiation. Its policy relevance lies in supporting targeted measures tailored to different integration profiles and regional opportunity structures.

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