At the national report “Youth of Kazakhstan – 2022”, it was decided to raise the age threshold of people included in the youth category from 14-28 to 14-35 years.
At the beginning of this year, young people make up about 19% of the total population of Kazakhstan (3.7 million people).
Everyone has heard the expression "youth is our future" more than once. And indeed, youth often acts as the engine of development of society, the country, and is one of the first demographic groups to respond to social and political changes. The new generation accumulates the cultural, intellectual and social foundations of society and transforms them into something new.
In this article, we will look at how the youth of Kazakhstan differs from the youth of other countries, and how this may affect trends that may develop in the future. To do this, we use data from sociological studies of youth from different countries, which are available on the Internet.
One of the most important factors in the formation of a person as an individual is the environment. Thus, the country and its cultural and social values form in many ways a unique, inimitable society in which a new generation is raised. To begin with, let us consider the difference in the cultural values of the youth of Kazakhstan and the West.
Kazakhstan has historically developed as a country that serves as a platform for communication or cohabitation of many nations and cultures. The issue of peaceful coexistence of representatives of different ethnic groups on the territory of Kazakhstan has arisen more than once, but what tendencies are modern youth inclined to in intercultural issues ?
According to the results of a 2021 sociological study in Kazakhstan (1), 75.8% of respondents aged 14 to 29 said they were ready to make friends with people of a different ethnic group and religion. As you can see, the vast majority of young people maintain the traditions of Kazakh hospitality.
At the moment, it can be said that tolerance and greater tolerance towards minorities and vulnerable social groups is growing everywhere, especially among young people. However, the main experience of interaction with minorities that Kazakhstan has historically encountered is the coexistence of ethnic Kazakhs in the same territory with representatives of other nationalities.
In Europe or the USA, one can observe more active experience in combating discrimination against minorities, both at the legislative and social levels. Youth activism and youth participation in the life of ghana phone number data society are observed in our country to a much lesser extent compared to Western countries. For example, in the Baltic countries, on average, a quarter of young people are actively interested in politics. At the same time, only 11.4% of young Kazakhstanis show interest in the political life of the country, and 48% are not interested at all (1) . This is mostly due to three factors: the difference in cultural and social context, the unpreparedness of Kazakhstani youth for a more active civic position, and the insufficient number of opportunities for the implementation of youth activism at the moment.
On average, young people in the Baltic countries are much more active in their civic stance: the proportion of young Balts involved in party activities exceeds the proportion of young Kazakhstanis by 4 times. (2)
Many of the recent large-scale events in politics and everyday life (pandemic, January events) of Kazakhstanis have prepared the foundation for a new step towards greater involvement of young people in the life of our country. Thus, in the future, it is possible to expect the development of youth activism in Kazakhstan.
The economic crises, political and social transformations that have affected our country since the global crisis of 2008 have presented a kind of test for the development of Kazakhstani society. This difficult period coincided with the childhood and adolescence of many who are now part of the youth demographic group. It can be said that such circumstances of growing up, as well as the active development of a market economy after the collapse of the USSR, contributed to the penetration of some materialistic and pragmatic views into the ranks of modern youth. Young people have a healthy interest in the economic situation in our country - 54% of respondents are optimistic about the prospects of our country's economy in the future.
However, it is worth noting that materialistic values are not key for young people; on the contrary, being in constant potential risk has developed some immunity to crisis situations in young people and directed their focus in a different direction.