Structure and dynamics of the population of Transcaucasia and Central Asia peoples diasporas in Belarus

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the national diasporas of the largest peoples of Transcaucasia and Central Asia in Belarus — Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Tajiks. The dynamics of the urban and rural, male and female population of these nationalities, the number of men per 1000 women in 1959–2019, the ratio of the number in different regions of Belarus, the population structure by education level, marital status, linguistic characteristics and their dynamics between 2009 and 2019 population censuses, the structure of the population of these diasporas by employment status and characteristics of the main job in 2019 and its comparison with similar indicators for the entire population of Belarus are shown. Using cluster analysis, dendrograms showing the similarity of various diasporas in terms of basic characteristics were created. It has been established that the Turkmen diaspora is radically different from the rest in all characteristics, which is due to the fact that the vast majority of its representatives arrived in Belarus to receive an education. The characteristics of the Kazakh diaspora are closest to those of the entire population of Belarus. A sharp increase in the disproportion between men and women among the Transcaucasian peoples can be caused both by the arrival of mainly male population for economic reasons, and the tendency to identify girls in mixed families according to the titular ethnic group, and boys according to the diaspora ethnic group. The maximum relative increase in the number for the period 2009–2019 observed among the Turkmens (almost twice) and Tajiks, the number of Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Georgians also increased, the number of Kazakhs and Uzbeks decreased. In all diasporas, except for the Kazakhs, the share of ethnic languages as native ones increases with a corresponding decrease in the share of Russian and Belarusian languages. The share of ethnic languages as home languages continues to be relatively low — less than 20 % (except for the Turkmens, for whom it is more than 60 %).