Akmal Bazarbaev
 

This project examines patterns of labour migration and the ways in which migrants responded to mobility constraints in colonial-era Central Asia. Prior to the Russian conquest, Central Asian people had moved freely from their residence to other territories despite the region being divided up into different states. They usually migrated for economic reasons. Russian rule established and maintained borders between the Bukharan Emirate, the Khivan Khanate, and the Turkestan general-governorship. By the late 19th century, the colonial administration also introduced administrative-territorial units in Turkestan. Following the Russian Empire's arrival, not only natural resources and property but also the local population itself became sources of capital, particularly in terms of labour and tax revenue. This project investigates how these changes intensified state control over population migration and how individuals adapted to this new reality.

Specifically, I aim to explore the circumstances under which local communities in Central Asia encountered and negotiated new barriers to movement. I will focus in particular on the social history of individuals who migrated from their places of residence to other parts of Central Asia in search of work. In colonial Central Asia, young, middle-aged, and partly older people migrated for labour. The representatives of these three generations experienced new "barriers" to migration differently from each other and from the colonial authorities. For young migrants who had not experienced the trans-regional mobility of the pre-imperial age, the imposition of new migration procedures came as no change to what they had previously known. This was not the case, by contrast, with middle-aged and older generations. This study attempts to determine how the latter age cohorts who had become accustomed to traditional migration adapted to the new migration procedures.