“Nobody has ever asked about young people’s opinions”: Young people’s perspectives on identity, exclusion and the prospects for a peaceful future in Central Asia

The post-Soviet generation is coming of age in Central Asia and this brings rise to the question of how they will impact society? What are their perceptions, attitudes, and aspirations?

This analysis employs interactive and participatory research methods developed and designed by Saferworld and local researchers. The outcomes of this analysis are intended to help researchers, policy makers, and other invested parties understand what kind of role young people currently have and could have in the future and development of Central Asia.

The findings are arranged under three themes:

“1. Young people’s relationships to national and communal identities. How young people in young states, with distinct ethnic, religious and regional groups, identify themselves, to what extent they feel included or excluded by their governments’ attempts to create a common national identity and what young people’s visions are for the future of their states.

2. Young people’s perceptions and experiences of democratic governance, and the barriers to their participation, and to what extent young people in Central Asia are being equipped to contribute to stable and democratic societies in the future.

3. Common issues which young people identified as contributing to tensions and insecurity within their states and societies; how the responses of internal and external powers to these concerns are affecting young people’s relationships with each other, the state and the international community; and how young people feel they could contribute to their resolution.”