Published on and written by Cyril Jarnias
Moving to Kazakhstan, whether for studies, an expatriate contract, or a long-term project, often feels like a bit of a crazy adventure. Between the endless steppes, -40 °C winters in Astana, the mountains around Almaty, invitations to drink tea, and plates of beshbarmak, the change of scenery is total. And that is precisely what brings on homesickness.
This is the percentage of expatriates who face culture shock during their first year abroad, a reality particularly pronounced in Kazakhstan.
The challenge isn’t to “not be sad”, but to learn to cope with these emotions, to understand them and turn them into a driver for integration. Because homesickness is not an illness: it’s a normal reaction to a radical change, a kind of nostalgia mixed with a need for security, familiarity, and attachment.
Understanding Homesickness in the Kazakh Context
Arriving in Kazakhstan often means changing everything at once: language, climate, food, social relationships, pace of life, administrative landmarks. Psychologically, we speak of two major overlapping reactions: the separation reaction (sadness, intrusive thoughts focused on “back home”) and the adaptation reaction (stress related to new norms, procedures, language, work, or studies).
Kazakh society is very communal, family-oriented, and hierarchical, marked by strong traditions and pronounced hospitality. Daily life revolves around the extended family, where cousins are considered brothers and sisters, and multiple generations live together. Parents and grandparents play a constant role in education. For someone arriving alone, far from their network, this context greatly heightens the feeling of emptiness and disconnect.
Climate and geography also play a role. Experiencing a first winter in Astana, the second coldest capital in the world, with freezing winds and temperatures well below zero, when coming from a temperate country, can accentuate fatigue, withdrawal at home, and, by ricochet, nostalgic rumination. Conversely, the steppes, the Tian Shan mountains, canyons like Charyn, or alpine lakes can become, if one dares to explore them, powerful anchors for creating new positive memories.
Recognizing Symptoms Before They Settle In
Homesickness doesn’t just manifest as a desire to return home. It affects the body, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. In Kazakhstan, where the loneliness of the expatriate can easily hide behind a facade of “everything’s fine,” spotting these signals early is crucial.
On a physical level, sleep disturbances (insomnia or fragmented sleep), changes in appetite, headaches, digestive pains, persistent fatigue, and even an increased tendency to fall ill due to stress are often observed. In an extreme climate, where the body already has to make an adaptation effort, these symptoms can easily be minimized and attributed only to the cold or jet lag.
The emotional state of expatriates can evolve from simple nostalgia to deep sadness, including irritability, increased sensitivity, crying spells, feelings of loneliness, and loss of self-confidence. The emergence of negative and self-deprecating thoughts may signal a risk of sliding into more severe depression.
Mentally, thoughts circle back endlessly to home, family, friends, and old routines. One idealizes the home country, paints the Kazakh reality in a negative light, and multiplies negative comparisons (“here, they never…”, “in my country, it would be easier”). This harms the ability to concentrate, to learn Russian or Kazakh, to follow studies, or to work effectively.
Many expatriates adopt withdrawal behavior, reducing their outings and declining invitations. They often spend their evenings checking social media from their home country or maintaining frequent calls with their family, without investing in their local life. This withdrawal affects their work or studies, manifesting as decreased productivity, errors, delays, and conflicts with colleagues or professors.
To take a step back, we can summarize the main dimensions of homesickness as follows:
| Dimension | Common Manifestations |
|---|---|
| Physical | Sleep disturbances, fatigue, headaches, digestive pains |
| Emotional | Sadness, anxiety, irritability, easy tears, feeling of emptiness |
| Cognitive | Intrusive thoughts about “home,” negative comparisons, idealization |
| Behavioral | Isolation, refusal of invitations, drop in performance, digital withdrawal |
Understanding this mechanism already helps to normalize it: feeling all of this in Almaty, Astana, or Atyrau is not a sign of weakness, but the symptom of a profound transition.
Turning Your Home Into a Reassuring Anchor
The first concrete lever for easing homesickness: make it a little less “over there” and a little more “your own.” Many expatriates arrive in Kazakhstan in furnished apartments, with few personal effects. The modern apartments of Astana or renovated Soviet blocks in Almaty, even if comfortable, can then seem impersonal, almost temporary. However, as long as one lives “waiting,” adaptation remains superficial.
To recreate a sense of continuity and comfort, personalize your new space with familiar objects. Hang photos of loved ones, bring cherished items like a blanket, a mug, an art book, or a poster. Set up a reading nook or meditation space, and diffuse a familiar scent. Some expatriates even bring their own pillow or decorations for national holidays to mark important dates from their home country.
Smells and tastes play a central role in the feeling of home. Preparing a traditional dish from home, finding an international grocery or market selling imported products, keeping a stock of tea, coffee, or chocolate “from home,” asking family to send a package with some specific treats can have a disproportionate impact on morale. In Kazakhstan, where local cuisine emphasizes lamb, horse, and fermented dairy products like kumys or shubat, this culinary bridge to one’s country is often experienced as a balance between discovery and reassurance.
Establishing simple routines, like an evening walk, a morning coffee at the same spot, a regular workout session, or a reading moment at the end of the day, helps stabilize daily life and reduce the feeling of internal chaos.
Taming Kazakh Culture to Feel Less Like a Stranger
Homesickness feeds on distance: “them” and “me.” Bridging this gap involves understanding what is happening on the other side, in behaviors, rituals, language, and expectations. In Kazakhstan, cultural codes are strong, but they quickly become a source of warmth once the basics are mastered.
Family, including parents, grandparents, and cousins, is the cornerstone of Kazakh society. It explains many social and professional priorities. While being away from family can be painful, this importance of clan ties can also translate into precious support, with families easily adopting foreigners they appreciate.
Hospitality is a true institution. The proverb that says “a guest among forty may be a saint” sums up this belief that receiving is a blessing. Accepting an invitation to share tea at home, a dastarkhan (generously laid table), tasting baursaks, beshbarmak, participating in a toast or a bata (blessing) gives access to the heart of the culture. Systematically refusing these invitations, out of shyness or fear of bothering, maintains the barrier and reinforces isolation.
Language is another powerful bridge. Kazakhstan is officially Kazakh-speaking, but Russian remains omnipresent, especially in large cities and the business world. Research shows that mastery of the local language is the number one factor for successful adaptation for foreign students and workers. Even a beginner level, accompanied by a few Kazakh words like “Salemetsiz be!”, “Rakhmet,” “Sau bolynyz,” often triggers a smile and encouragement. Conversely, remaining confined to English feeds the feeling of being in permanent transit.
Advice for Integration in Kazakhstan
Learning the local rules of politeness — removing shoes when entering someone’s home, accepting at least a little food, respecting the order of service according to age and status, standing up to make a toast, using respectful titles when addressing elders — gives the feeling of “playing by the right rules” rather than enduring an incomprehensible environment.
Building a Local Network to Counter Loneliness
The statistics on expatriate loneliness are staggering: up to 87% of them report feeling very lonely at some point during their stay. The World Health Organization even considers loneliness a major health risk, comparable in impact to heavy smoking. In Kazakhstan, this risk is heightened by the climate, the language barrier, and the fact that Kazakhs rarely initiate conversation with complete strangers on the street or in a café.
Key structures for meeting other expatriates and facilitating your settlement in the major cities of Kazakhstan.
Brings together dozens of people from over thirty nationalities every week for activities, meetings, and charity projects.
Organizes regular events, offers interest-based subgroups, and provides valuable logistical support for newcomers.
International networks like InterNations have active communities in Almaty and Astana, organizing parties, outings, and language circles. Several expatriate testimonies emphasize how an invitation to an InterNations event changed their experience: job found, lasting friendships, feeling of “no longer being alone in this adventure.”
Beyond formal classes, English, Russian, or Kazakh practice groups frequently meet in cafés in Almaty and Astana. These meetups, such as the ‘Global Socializing Group in Almaty,’ language exchange meetups, or English clubs, offer a two-way springboard: they allow participants to improve their language while giving Kazakhs a chance to practice English. They attract a diverse audience: students, young professionals, travelers, and expatriates.
Social media complement this setup. Kazakhstan is among the most connected countries in the region, with over 90% of the population having internet access. Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, TikTok, and VK bring together millions of users. Searching for groups like “expats in Almaty,” “foreigners in Astana,” “language exchange Kazakhstan,” or specific communities (sports, hiking, photography, board games) greatly facilitates making contact.
To structure a social integration approach, one can think in terms of circles:
| Type of Circle | Examples in Kazakhstan |
|---|---|
| Expatriates | AIWC, Astana International Club, InterNations, bars like Mad Murphy’s |
| Locals | Language groups, colleagues, neighbors, sports clubs |
| Mixed (online/offline) | Facebook groups, Meetup, Telegram networks for outings and events |
Alternating between these circles helps avoid cutting oneself off from either the international community or the host society, which reduces the risk of getting stuck in a sometimes very comfortable but non-integrative “expat bubble.”
Staying Connected to Home Without Getting Trapped There
Current technologies make geographical distance more bearable: WhatsApp, Telegram, Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, Google Meet, Messenger, Discord, or more sophisticated apps like Marco Polo or JusTalk Family allow calling, exchanging videos, and following family events almost in real time. Research shows that for expatriates and international students alike, those who maintain regular contact with loved ones generally feel less disoriented.
To turn your stay in Kazakhstan into a positive shared experience, it’s crucial to balance exchanges with your loved ones. Avoid conversations focused solely on missing them, regrets, or problems, as this can maintain the pain of distance. Instead, prioritize sharing your discoveries (local meals, landscapes like the Kolsai Lakes, cultural life in Astana), send photos, and involve your family in your new life by showing them markets, ceremonies, or everyday moments. This helps integrate this stay into the family story, rather than making it a difficult parenthesis.
The key is often regularity rather than duration. Scheduling clear weekly slots, taking the time difference into account, to talk with parents, friends, or a partner back home frees the mind between these appointments. It also avoids ending up responding to messages day and night, leading to exhaustion and difficulty concentrating on studies or work.
It is not advisable to plan a quick return to your home country after moving abroad. Specialists recommend waiting several months, even a year, to allow for the creation of strong local ties and avoid maintaining a feeling of life between two worlds.
Exploring the Country to Write New Memories
Part of homesickness comes from the fact that all the pleasant, reassuring images are attached to the home territory, while the new country is for now only filled with administrative difficulties, awkward moments, and biting cold. Reversing this balance requires filling Kazakhstan with positive experiences.
The country lends itself particularly well to this. The endless steppes, national parks like Altyn‑Emel or Kokshetau, canyons, alpine lakes, the proximity of mountains around Almaty, the possibility of watching eagles or spending a night in a yurt quickly transform a simple stay into a formative narrative. A “local bucket list,” a list of things to see and do in the region, helps turn an empty weekend into a motivating project: ice skating at Medeu, taking the Kok‑Tobe cable car, visiting the Bayterek Tower, attending a performance at the Astana Opera, discovering the national museum, going hiking with a group.
Domestic cultural tourism in Kazakhstan, through participation in holidays like Nauryz, watching equestrian games like kokpar, visiting historical sites like the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum in Turkistan, participating in traditional ceremonies (betashar, tusau kesu), or discovering the Baikonur Cosmodrome and natural parks, strengthens the sense of belonging by offering strong cultural and mythological landmarks.
Studies on the adaptation of foreign students and expatriates show that those who engage in local activities — sports, religious, associative, cultural — adjust better and show fewer depressive symptoms. Participation doesn’t eliminate nostalgia, but it distances it by opening other horizons.
Taking Care of Your Mental Health in a Country Still Marked by Taboo
Discussing mental health in Kazakhstan remains delicate. The Soviet heritage, distrust of institutional psychiatry, the valorization of family discretion and, for men, strong pressure to remain “strong” complicate access to care. Yet, figures remind us that this is a major issue: suicide rates, especially among youth, are among the highest in the region, and more than 260,000 people are estimated to need mental health support in the country.
For an expatriate, it’s crucial not to minimize persistent distress. The line between normal homesickness and an anxiety disorder or depression can be thin. It is necessary to seek help when symptoms like lasting sadness and loss of motivation, prolonged sleep disturbances, systematic social avoidance, or the emergence of thoughts of death, even fleeting, occur.
The country is gradually equipping itself: a 24/7 hotline offers free and confidential support in Kazakh and Russian, a dedicated line for youth complements this service, crisis centers and rehabilitation services are developing, sometimes with the support of WHO and UNICEF. Direct access for a non-Russian-speaking foreigner is not always simple but can be considered with the help of a trusted interpreter.
Many expatriates turn to tele‑consultation with psychologists or psychoanalysts based abroad but specially trained to support expatriate lives. Some organizations offer secure online therapy, often in English, tailored to specific issues like uprootedness, isolation, culture shock, or tensions within the expatriate couple or family.
The essential thing is to abandon the idea that asking for help is an admission of failure in the international adventure. On the contrary, studies show that those who accept psychological follow-up, even temporarily, go through crisis phases more quickly, succeed better in their adaptation, and manage their international careers better in the long term.
Managing Culture Shock and the Famous “Six-Month Slump”
Setting up in a new country often follows an emotional curve with several phases. First, the euphoria of discovery — the futuristic architecture of Nur‑Sultan, trendy cafés in Almaty, impressive steppes seen from the plane — then the so-called negotiation phase, where minor irritants accumulate: opaque administrations, visa registrations, communication difficulties, slowness, unclear social norms, exhausting weather.
Around six months, many expatriates describe a pronounced low: the initial excitement has faded, difficulties remain real, most friends from the home country have returned to their “normal” lives, and one begins to realize that this new reality is here for the long haul. This period, often called “expat blues” or “six‑month slump,” is particularly conducive to homesickness.
Intercultural psychologists recommend several strategies for getting through the ‘low’ phase during an expatriation. It’s crucial to identify this period as a normal and expected stage of culture shock, not a personal failure. Avoid isolation by actively planning outings and activities. It’s also important not to let yourself be overwhelmed by a constantly negative internal dialogue about the host country. Finally, surrounding yourself with people who have already overcome this stage and can testify to it is a valuable resource for regaining balance.
The study of expatriate trajectories suggests that nostalgia and cultural discomfort decrease in an almost linear way over the first two years, provided the person does not retreat behind a systematic refusal to engage with the local context. In other words, perseverance eventually pays off, even if the benefits sometimes appear later than expected.
Playing to Your Personality Strengths and Developing Cultural Intelligence
We are not equal in the face of uprooting. Meta‑analyses conducted on thousands of expatriates show that certain personality traits facilitate adjustment: open‑mindedness, extraversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness (ability to organize, maintain routines), agreeableness (ease in getting along with others). But these traits don’t determine everything.
To succeed in your integration, it’s crucial to develop two skills: cultural empathy (understanding a local viewpoint without judgment) and cultural intelligence (motivation to decode and adapt to other cultures). Concretely, this involves accepting a certain flexibility regarding punctuality in social contexts, respecting the weight of hierarchy in the workplace, being attentive to gestures that may be poorly perceived, and approaching local political topics with great caution.
Practicing this cognitive and behavioral flexibility directly reduces the feeling of radical strangeness, and thus homesickness. This can involve reading books or blogs on Kazakh history and traditions, careful observation of how colleagues interact, explicitly asking for an explanation when a code is unclear (“how should I greet in this situation?”, “what does this toast mean?”), rather than withdrawal or immediate criticism.
Finding a Balance Between Old Ties and New Attachments
One of the greatest fears related to homesickness is “forgetting where you come from” by becoming too attached to the host land. Conversely, some fear never integrating by staying too glued to their community of origin. Balance is built by accepting being, at least for a time, a person “between two worlds,” what is sometimes called a bicultural or multicultural being.
Studies on dispersed families and migrants show that distance can be partially compensated for by new digital traditions. These rituals, like virtual dinners, synchronized movie watching via browser extensions, sharing photo albums, or thematic weekly appointments (e.g., ‘Monday memories’), give depth back to family ties—a major pillar of psychological health—without hindering the building of local relationships.
At the same time, giving oneself permission to form deep friendships in Kazakhstan, to become attached to a host family, a hiking group, colleagues, does not constitute a betrayal of one’s own. On the contrary, these ties can enrich the extended family circle, especially when loved ones come to visit the country or discover these people through video calls.
When Should You Reconsider Your Expatriation Project?
It happens that, despite sincere and constant efforts to integrate, despite an established network, routines, activities, and domestic travel, homesickness remains overwhelming, worsens, or is accompanied by severe depressive symptoms. In these cases, loyalty to oneself also includes the right to reconsider the project.
For a couple or family move, it’s recommended to set a trial period from the start, for example six to twelve months. This mutual commitment allows for seriously trying the experience before deciding together to continue it. This approach avoids both the pressure of having to stick it out at all costs, which can be destructive, and the temptation to return at any time, which compromises commitment.
Returning to your home country isn’t necessarily an admission of failure: it’s sometimes the healthiest decision, provided it’s made thoughtfully, after exploring available support (psychological help, work adjustments, changing cities within the country, different schooling for children, etc.). One must also keep in mind that a hasty return doesn’t end all questioning: “reverse culture shock,” the disconnect felt upon returning “home,” is very real.
Making It a Growth Experience Rather Than an Endured Ordeal
In the end, homesickness in Kazakhstan rarely follows a straight line. It’s more like a series of waves, more or less intense depending on the period: family holidays in the home country, a difficult event experienced locally, a professional success, a beautiful encounter, a very harsh winter, a bright spring, etc. Seeking never to feel nostalgia is illusory; learning to surf these waves, on the other hand, is possible.
To transform the expatriation experience, several complementary actions are essential: setting up a comfortable home, establishing routines, understanding local social codes, learning Russian or Kazakh, participating in social and community networks, maintaining strong ties with loved ones, exploring the country, and taking care of your mental health by seeking professional help if needed. These pillars, once consolidated, facilitate the emergence of a dual sense of belonging.
In many accounts of expatriates settled long-term in Kazakhstan, one finds, after the initial difficulties, a sincere attachment to the country: to its winter light, the generosity of its tables, the rugged beauty of its steppes, the discreet humor of its inhabitants, the experience of having raised children in another school system, or the pride of having survived winters they thought insurmountable. Homesickness never completely disappears, but it then coexists with a deep gratitude for what this Central Asian chapter has allowed.
Between the home of yesterday and the home of tomorrow, Kazakhstan can become a formative chapter. The essential thing is not to remain alone with your nostalgia, to give it words, faces, rituals, places, and to remember that feeling this absence is not a sign of weakness, but proof that you are capable of forming ties strong enough to continue to matter, even thousands of miles away.
Reflection on Exile and Identity
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Cyril Jarnias is an independent expert in international wealth management with over 20 years of experience. As an expatriate himself, he is dedicated to helping individuals and business leaders build, protect, and pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.
On his website, cyriljarnias.com, he shares his expertise on international real estate, offshore company formation, and expatriation.
Thanks to his expertise, he offers sound advice to optimize his clients' wealth management. Cyril Jarnias is also recognized for his appearances in many prestigious media outlets such as BFM Business, les Français de l’étranger, Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Mieux vivre votre argent, where he shares his knowledge and know-how in wealth management.
