Diasporas
Post-Soviet diasporas in France: Kazakhs, Georgians
Beyond Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians, France has smaller post-Soviet communities: Kazakhs, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Belarusians, Moldovans. Most speak Russian - so one living community in the South of France brings them all together.
“Russian-speaking France” isn’t only Russians. Alongside Ukrainians and Armenians, there are smaller but living post-Soviet communities here: Kazakhs, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Belarusians, Moldovans. What unites them isn’t a passport but a shared language and a similar experience of moving.
Kazakhstanis in France: who they are and how to translate documents
Kazakhstan is one of the countries Campus France recruits from most actively: the agency runs offices in Almaty and Astana, and students from Kazakhstan get grants and a streamlined visa track. That explains why a large share of Kazakhstanis in France are students and young professionals (on studying in France). Beyond them come families and specialists who moved for work.
Those who come over include students in engineering programmes and business schools, IT specialists, engineers, and families accompanying a spouse on a French contract. There are no exact headcounts: France keeps no ethnic statistics. Most Kazakhstanis, especially those from Almaty and Astana, are Russian-speaking, so they slot naturally into the Russian-speaking community.
How do you translate a Kazakh diploma for France?
Kazakh documents (a diploma, birth certificate, official records) have to be translated by a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté) listed on the register of the court of appeal covering your place of residence, for official use in France. Russian-language documents fall under the same rules. You can find a translator in the “Experts et traducteurs” section on the website of your region’s court of appeal; check the translator against the court’s list. More in the doctors and translators directory. You can ask in the chat of the community who has already had such a translation done.
Is there a separate chat for Kazakhstanis?
As a rule there’s no separate, narrowly focused chat: questions about moving and paperwork or a French visa are the same regardless of passport. In “Vibe South of France” you can ask such questions of people who have already been through the same thing.
Who else: pointers by community
There are no exact numbers, so below are pointers, not statistics.
| Community | What is known |
|---|---|
| Georgians | a notable community, including older emigration; Georgian restaurants are well known in French cities |
| Azerbaijanis | some came to study or work; Caucasus and Turkic networks |
| Belarusians | a notable wave after 2020; active in the Russian-speaking space |
| Moldovans | often bilingual, with Romanian or Russian ties |
An indirect pointer is study data: Campus France publishes student numbers by country of origin (campusfrance.org). That is only part of the picture, not the diaspora’s total size. Ukrainians have a page of their own.
Embassies and consulates in France
Addresses in the directory right now: 16. Moldova: the embassy in Paris, a consulate general in Nice and honorary consulates in Bordeaux, Lille, Saint-Étienne and Toulouse. Kazakhstan: the embassy and its consular section in Paris, honorary consulates in Grenoble and Rennes. Belarus: the embassy in Paris and an honorary consulate in Lyon. Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have their embassies in Paris, and Tajikistan in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Azerbaijan’s embassy isn’t on the list, because its website wouldn’t open when we checked. For the consulates of Ukraine, Russia and Armenia, see our pages on Ukrainians, Russians and Armenians in France.
- Ambassade de la République du Bélarus en France
Embassy - Belarus
38 boulevard Suchet, 75016 Paris
+33 1 44 14 69 75 · official website - Consulat honoraire de Biélorussie (Lyon)
Honorary consulate - Belarus
5 place Antonin Poncet, 69002 Lyon
+33 4 78 42 04 63 - Ambassade de Géorgie en France
Embassy - Georgia
8 rue Brémontier, 75017 Paris
+33 1 45 02 16 16 · official website - Ambassade de la République du Kazakhstan en France
Embassy - Kazakhstan
3 rue de Tilsitt, 75008 Paris
01 45 61 52 00 · official website - Service consulaire de l’Ambassade du Kazakhstan
Consular section of the embassy - Kazakhstan
59 rue Pierre Charron, 75008 Paris
01 45 61 52 02 · official website - Consulat honoraire du Kazakhstan (Grenoble)
Honorary consulate - Kazakhstan
28 cours Jean Jaurès, 38000 Grenoble - Consulat honoraire du Kazakhstan à Rennes
Honorary consulate - Kazakhstan
7 quai Chateaubriand, 35000 Rennes - Ambassade du Kirghizstan
Embassy - Kyrgyzstan
42 boulevard Flandrin, 75016 Paris
+33 1 71 60 37 04 - Ambasada Republicii Moldova în Republica Franceză - Secția Consulară (Ambassade de la République de Moldavie)
Embassy - Moldova
19 rue Henri Rochefort, 75017 Paris
+33 1 42 94 04 57 · consulat.paris@mfa.gov.md · official website - Consulatul General al Republicii Moldova la Nisa
Consulate general - Moldova
31 avenue Jean Médecin, 06000 Nice
+33 4 93 92 35 77 · consulat.nisa@mfa.gov.md · official website - Consulat honoraire de la République de Moldavie (Bordeaux)
Honorary consulate - Moldova
14 place des Quinconces, 33000 Bordeaux
+33 5 56 00 84 84 - Consulat honoraire de Moldavie à Lille
Honorary consulate - Moldova
31 rue des Fossés, 59800 Lille - Consulat honoraire de la République de Moldavie (Saint-Étienne)
Honorary consulate - Moldova
10 rue Charles Darwin, 42100 Saint-Étienne
04 77 57 04 31 - Consulat honoraire de la République de Moldavie (Toulouse)
Honorary consulate - Moldova
20 rue Lafayette, 31000 Toulouse - Ambassade de la République du Tadjikistan en France
Embassy - Tajikistan
60 avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine
+33 1 70 92 93 42 · official website - Ambassade de la République d'Ouzbékistan en France
Embassy - Uzbekistan
22 rue d'Aguesseau, 75008 Paris
+33 1 53 30 03 53 · official website
Where to find your people
The biggest concentrations are in big cities (Paris, Lyon, Marseille) and the South (Montpellier, Nice, Toulouse), where the new wave of relocators heads. Post-Soviet relocators more often find their people not in a “narrowly national” chat but in the shared Russian-speaking space: it’s easier there to get quick advice on the préfecture, housing, work. We don’t make separate pages like “Kazakhs in Nice” or “Georgians in Toulouse”: there is no data for them.
In our community
‘Vibe South of France’ is a Russian-speaking community open to everyone, whatever the passport. We don’t ask members about their nationality and don’t count it. If you’ve just moved, write which city you’re in and what you do, and people will tell you who of ours is nearby. Live meetups are in the events chronicle.
See also: