Ethnic Minorities in the Frontier: Contemporary Ethnic Composition and Demographic Attitudes

Abstract

This article analyzes the current ethnic composition and identifies the demographic attitudes of peoples living in the border regions of Western Siberia. This includes the Omsk and Novosibirsk regions, the Altai Territory, and the Altai Republic. Ethnic minorities (diasporas) can be divided into old and new. Older minorities include Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, and Kazakhs, as well as a people who, in addition to ethnic minority status, also have indigenous status. Newer diasporas include Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks, whose numbers have increased significantly since the collapse of the USSR. The sources for studying ethnodemographic processes are statistics (primarily population censuses), while demographic attitudes are investigated using qualitative methods (primarily interviews and observations). The border location has a significant impact on both population size and its ethnic composition. A qualitative study of demographic attitudes and motivations showed that they largely corresponded to all-Russian trends, but additionally, ethnocultural factors influencing the decline in the birth rate were identified: those were changes in family structure and marital norms, a decrease in the importance of the kinship group, a decrease in the intensity of intra-family contacts, and the growing isolation of the nuclear family.