NATIONALIZING THE WORK-FORCE - ETHNIC RESTRATIFICATION IN THE NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES

Whenever indigenous elites gain greater decision-making authority in their own homelands, they seek to use this newly acquired power to enhance the standing of their own nation relative to members of other nations living there. This ''nationalization'' or indigenization process typically includes attempts to raise the status of the indigenous nation's ethno-cultural characteristics (e.g., language, religion), to increase the competitive position of indigenes over non-indigenes in the socio-cultural and political sectors (e.g., less restrictive university entrance requirements for indigenous students, and ethnic favoritism in access to government jobs and benefits), to improve the relative legal standing of indigenes as ''first among equals,'' and to reorient hiring criteria so that an individual's membership in the indigenous nation becomes an important, even overriding factor. This paper examines the last dimension of this ''nationalization'' process, assessing the degree to which work force indigenization had occurred prior to the break-up of the USSR and the acceleration of the nationalization of the work force since 1989.