However this picture is far from the reality lived by Osh residents. Interethnic tension among Uzbeks and Kyrgyz does indeed exist in Osh part of the legacy of the brutal inter-ethnic fighting in 1990. The in-migration occurred at a time of growing unemployment and rising nationalism. Ultimately, a dispute over land distribution for homeless Kyrgyz flared up into very bitter inter-communal rioting leaving hundreds dead. Since then, mutual suspicion has remained high.
Intermarriage is rare and social segregation is strong.
Questions about equal access to education and jobs are issues of great concern for Uzbeks. Nevertheless there have been very few significant incidents of ethnic or other violence in Osh or the Valley as a whole since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In much of the Valley outside Osh, mixed marriages between groups such as Kyrgyz and Uzbek, and Uzbek and Tajik are high. Life-cycle rituals are similar, and communities are largely intermixed. Only a few Uzbeks have left Kyrgyzstan, compared with massive Russian out-migration.