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Paper abstract:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mass movement of people across state borders proved impossible. Restrictions on physical mobility and increased government regulation seemed destined to affect the work of small traders, the movement of goods, and thus bazaar activities. However, during my field research in the 'Chinese' markets of Bishkek, Almaty, and Ulaanbaatar in the spring of 2022, I discovered that the locals continued to engage in lively trade. This discovery provoked questions about how small-scale trade, which relied on personal trips to China for goods, survives. How do small wholesale goods currently move across the Chinese border?

Within the concept of migration infrastructure introduced by B.Xiang and J.Lindquist, I will answer the above questions by demonstrating that the infrastructure for the 'migration' of commodities partially has been moved to the virtual space (WeChat, Instagram, Facebook). Such digitalization of bazaars, supported by old social networks, makes it possible to receive goods from China and take advantage of new trade practices in the local markets. The movement of commodities, like the migration of people, is not a linear process from point A to point B but a space of several dimensions mediated by the infrastructure involved in this process. The authors of the concept distinguish five dimensions for the analysis: commercial, regulatory, technological, humanitarian, and social. Using these dimensions as a methodological tool allows revealing what was previously hidden. A detailed examination of the operation of infrastructure will enable us to demonstrate how COVID-19 affects social changes and how market relationships are reshaped by infrastructural change. The move to the digital space makes infrastructure self-sustaining and more accessible on the one hand and more burdensome.

The empirical data are based on observations and cases collected during the fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia's bazaars in April-May 2022. In addition, the analysis of social media accounts (online shops), such as Facebook and Instagram, related to selling commodities on local bazaars.