Importance of the Registration System

5.3.1 Importance of the Registration System

After all the discussed problems which can occur if one is not registered in his place of residence, it leaves the impression that it is a quite important issue for internal migrants if they are registered in their place of residence or not. But the interviews give a more sophisticated picture on that: To the question if it matters for their decisions about the future place of residence if they have a registration in that place or not, almost all of the interviewees negated. The main reason why they moved from the villages to Osh were economic opportunities which they hoped to find there, so this factor is much more crucial for their decisions than the problems with registration. Many interviewees left the impression that registration issues aren ’t important to them. Often they answered in a way which showed that they never really thought about registration matters before.

“I heard about propiska the first time from you. I knew but I didn’t understand for what propiska is used.” (Aijamal, Osh 2013)

“We were never interested in it because it wasn’t necessary. I don’t know.” (Jazgul, Osh 2013)

Most of the interviewees who said that they don’t care about registration they also didn’t face problems yet without registration. Some of the migrants said after the interview that they will think about registration now. Before they haven’t been aware about it, but now, after the talk, they begin to realize that it would be better to have a registration.

“I have never faced such problems even working 2о years in Osh. Now I am thinking abou t to have propiska in Osh.” (Djamila, Osh 201о)

Approximately the half of the interviewed migrants in the bazar said that they don’t have any problems without a city registration and thus they don’t care about it. The other half, who faced problems without registration, they thought about the ways how to get registered, but still it isn’t that important to them that they would leave Osh because they aren’t registered.

To detect if the importance of registration might depend on the literacy of law of the people, the researcher also talked to people who were well-educated and worked in departments or in organizations as a comparison. Four of these people didn’t have a registration in Osh. They came to Osh to work here, two of th em temporally, the other two permanently. All of them didn’t worry about the fact that they aren’t registered. They said that there is no need to be registered, and they didn’t face problems.

“If I would work in a foreign organization, I would think about it. But now I don’t [think about getting propiska]. We have free movement within Kyrgyzstan for Kyrgyz people, without propiska. […] There was no necessity for temporal propiska, we didn’t [try to get it].” (Djamila, Osh 201о)

Also the temporal registrati on wasn’t a topic for almost all of the migrants. Except of one case, the only people met during the research with temporal registration were students, who could register in their dormitory.

Presumably, the importance of the registration for a person does n’t depend so much on the literacy of law than more on the fact if the person faced any problems because of the lacking registration. According to some interviewees, there are no problems for somebody who has money if he isn’t registered. To get the same rights and access to basic services, somebody without registration just have to pay to receive the same.

“Usually it is like this: If you have money then you receive service. If they see that you have no money and at the same time no propiska then you will receive no service.” (Svetlana, Osh 2013)

Consequently, poorer people suffer more under the constraints due to lacking registration than more wealthy people, as they might not be able to pay at all the times.

However, there were some migrants who said that registration issues are important to them, even if they aren’t deciding for their staying. But they emphasized that without registration, somebody can face many difficulties as discussed above, and many of them faced these difficulties by themselves. One woman explained that especially for pregnant woman registration issues become However, there were some migrants who said that registration issues are important to them, even if they aren’t deciding for their staying. But they emphasized that without registration, somebody can face many difficulties as discussed above, and many of them faced these difficulties by themselves. One woman explained that especially for pregnant woman registration issues become

Another fact which makes it important to the migrants to have a registration in Osh is the perspective to receive a plot of land in Osh. This point was emphasized in almost every conducted interview with internal migrants. There was also one migrant (P11) from Alai who lived in Osh as a tenant but changed his registration to a village in Kara-Suu where he owned a small piece of land. He changed his registration to that place, because he hoped to obtain a piece of land there from the government, so he could live on an own property near Osh.

For some interviewees it was also important to be registered in Osh to be allowed to join the elections in Osh.

As mentioned before, some of the interviewees looked for help with their registration problems at a local NGO. For these migrants certainly registration was an important issue, otherwise they wouldn’t actively struggle with it and organize themselves.

The findings about the importance of the registration system might surprise. Despite the discussed limitations of basic services and rights which come along to the lack of registration, for most internal migrants the fact if they are registered or not doesn’t seem to be very important. The already discussed results give insight to two main reasons for this lack of interest: On the one hand, the level of knowledge about the registration system is quite deep. People might not be interested in registration issues as they don’t know enough about the limitations of rights and services which come along with it. Therefore they just accept their situation since they don’t know how they could change it. On the other hand, the answers of the interviewed migrants let assume that registration issues are just not as important like economic circumstances. These are the main reasons for migration. If migration is the only strategy to be able to generate income, the main concerns on the migration procedure are on pressing economic questions like finding a job and generating income. The acuteness of their economic situation does n’t allow them to consider other factors like the registration, as economic purposes are dominating the thinking. For state-society relations this means, that state indeed affect their lives through limiting basic services and rights, but due to lacking importance the effect of state on the life of internal migrants is limited. Despite that certain influence on daily life of internal migrants, the fact not being able to register doesn’t influence their decisions about migration and therefore doesn’t regulate migration fluxes through its registration system. Coming back to Migdal’s (1995) state-in-society approach and its theory on the struggle of domination between state and society, this limitation of the influence of state on migration decisions limits the domination of state over society.