Exploring Religiosity among Kyrgyz Migrants in the United States

ABSTRACTSome immigrants become more religious after migration due to isolation, marginalization, and difficulties adjusting to a new culture. The purpose of this research is twofold: to explore the level of religiosity among Kyrgyzstani migrants who self-identify as religious and to ascertain the extent to which Muslim Kyrgyz in the United States are able to fulfill their religious yearnings. The data are drawn from a survey of Kyrgyz migrants in the Chicago metropolitan area. This study sheds light on the diversity of the Muslim community, demonstrating that former Soviet Muslims practice Islam in ways that are different from other Muslims. AcknowledgmentsWe are very grateful to our research assistant, who wishes to remain anonymous, for his assistance in data collection. We also appreciate the constructive comments of the reviewers. And finally, this study would not have been possible without the participation of the Kyrgyz diaspora in Chicago. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to them.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. “V Rossii v 2022 godu zafiksirovali rekordniy ottok migrantov iz Armenii, Kyrgyzstana I Uzbekistana” (A record outflow in 2022 is registered in Russia of migrants from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan). Nastoiashee Vremia, November 8, 2022, https://www.currenttime.tv/a/v-rossii-v-2022-godu-zafiksirovali-rekordnyy-ottok-migrantov-/32120403.html (last accessed November 30, 2022).2. For comparison, the US GDP per capita is USD 59,500 per year, while Kyrgyzstan’s is USD 3,700 (United States Central Intelligence Agency Citation2018).3. On a recent visit to Chicago, one of the members of the research team attended a social gathering of more than twenty Russian-speaking immigrants. The family hosting the event was from Kyrgyzstan; yet, there were only two guests who were their co-ethnics. This is unusual because recent immigrants tend to socialize mostly with their co-ethnic compatriots and Chicago has a relatively large Kyrgyz diaspora, so it is easy to meet them. When the research team member asked the hosts why there were so few Kyrgyz at the party, they replied that many Kyrgyz immigrants have become devout Muslims; as secular Muslims the hosts felt that they did not have much in common with them. The researcher found this statement very surprising because a minority of Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan are devout Muslims (Pew Research Center Citation2012); the Soviet Union suppressed religious practices and, as a result, two generations of Kyrgyz grew up under a very secular regime and in non-religious families.4. Estimates by consular officials at the Kyrgyz Embassy to the United States and Canada.5. The research assistant was then a 32-year-old young man who had immigrated to the United States five years earlier. He described himself as religious and someone who attended mosque regularly both in Kyrgyzstan prior to migration and then in the United States.6. This researcher worked as a translator for a United Nations agency in the past and has the United Nations language proficiency certification.7. Even though one of the researchers is an immigrant from Kyrgyzstan, as a secular female, she was unable to gain access to this population. Such access was not problematic for the same researcher in other studies conducted with secular immigrants from the same region (Liebert Citation2009).8. The US Census identified migrants and minorities as difficult to count (and therefore, research) due to “fear of legal aspects of being counted … and difficulty with dominant national language(s)” (United States Census Bureau Citation2019).9. A belief that the only way to practice Islam in totality (Islam Kaffah) is to have no separation between religious law (Sharia) and state law.10. Polytheism is ascribing divinity to things or beings other than God. Islam emerged as an attack on polytheism of the Arabs in central western Arabia; therefore, polytheism is viewed as being incompatible with Islam (Hawting Citation1999).11. Uran Botobekov, “Kyrgyzstan’s Self-Defeating Conflict With Moderate Islam,” The Diplomat, June 22, 2016, available at https://thediplomat.com/2016/06/kyrgyzstans-self-defeating-conflict-with-moderate-islam/. Last accessed November 22, 2022. This respected Kyrgyz Muslim cleric passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, so there is a question of where his followers will turn for information about Islam in his absence.12. There is a methodological problem with how the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic reports the statistics on educational attainment. The agency states that among the population over the age of 15, 16.37% have completed higher education. By including the population between the ages of 15 and 22, a significant percent of whom are likely currently pursuing higher education, this number is underestimated. Kyrgyzstan’s institutions of higher education enrolled 51.1% of the college-aged youth in 2015 (Asian Development Bank Citation2015).13. Uber and Lyft drivers included.14. In the Kyrgyz society, older people have a special status and are viewed as being wise; their opinions are usually given weight. The respondents refer to older compatriots as “elders” (baike and eje in Kyrgyz, referring to older men and women, respectively). “Elder” does not indicate a special status within the mosque hierarchy.15. “He and she – women’s questions” (On i Ona – zhenskie voprosy), undated, https://umma.ru/on-i-ona-zhenskie-voprosi/.16. Video “Question–Answer. Sheik Chubak Ajy, Kyzyk-Kya city, Central Mosque,” January 12, 2018, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSWR2Yh0Cw8, last accessed January 25, 2018.17. The following anecdote is illustrative: One of the researchers’ relatives in Kyrgyzstan had started attending a mosque in his sixties for the first time in his life because a friend invited him. After a few months, he stopped going to Friday prayers. When asked about why he stopped attending a mosque, the relative responded: “Turns out I don’t know how to pray correctly. I’d just mimic everyone around me. So, I stopped going because I was embarrassed.”18. Immigrants who cannot prove their immigration status may apply for a Temporary Visitor Driver’s License as long as they pass a driving test, purchase auto insurance, have a document proving their identity and age, and can prove at least a one-year residency in Illinois.19. The Muftiyat receives 20–30 questions per week about Islam submitted online or through phone calls. As of 2017 it had three staff members answering such questions (Nasritdinov Citation2017).Additional informationFundingWe would like to thank the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University for providing the seed funding for this research through the Small Grants Program.