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One Homeland or Two? The Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia's Kazakhs

A new book published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press examines the relationship between place and identity among transnational Kazakhs.

WASHINGTON—Woodrow Wilson Center Press has published a new book, One Homeland or Two? The Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia's Kazakhs, by Alexander C. Diener. It is copublished with Stanford University Press.

How do ethnicity and notions of a traditional homeland interact in shaping a community's values and images? As Alexander C. Diener shows in this new book, the answer, even in a diaspora, is far from a simple harking back to the "old country." One Homeland or Two? focuses on the complex case of the Kazakhs of Mongolia, who were pushed out of the Soviet Union but later courted by the leaders of Kazakhstan, which was formed in their traditional homeland in 1991. Given the newly urbanized, somewhat Russified, and culturally Sovietized character of Kazakhstan, Mongolia's Kazakhs have had to figure out whether they can be better Kazakhs in Kazakhstan or in Mongolia, and then whether they identify more as Kazakhstanis or as Mongolians. Diener brings a battery of social science methodology to bear on this, including intensive fieldwork in both Kazakhstan and Mongolia. In the end, he illustrates the complexity and dynamism of this multigenerational, diasporic community, while demonstrating that the link between identity and place, despite the effects of globalization, is far from eroding.

"The scholarship that went into this book is superior. In addition to providing a thorough review of the academic literature on migration and transnational identity, the author has analyzed primary sources in three foreign languages (Kazakh, Russian, and Mongolian) and conducted interviews and surveys in two different countries."—Cynthia Werner, Texas A&M University

"While the literature on diaspora, homecoming, and homeland is vast, there is very little discussion of these issues and concepts as they relate to the Kazakhs. As a group, the Kazakhs are very much overlooked in the scholarship. This book, therefore, is of great import to the international migration field."—Elzbieta M. Gozdziak, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University

Alexander C. Diener is Associate Professor of Geography in the Social Science Division of Pepperdine University. He was a research scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2003-2004.

One Homeland or Two? is distributed by Stanford University Press, accessible online at www.sup.org or via telephone at 1-800-621-2736. The list price is $60.00 for hardcover.

Woodrow Wilson Center Press publishes books by fellows, resident scholars, and staff written in substantial part at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Titles range from popular accounts of historical topics to fundamental reviews of scholarly fields to authoritative background on important policy issues. For more information about the Press, or to search its backlist of titles, please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/press.