Paper abstract:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the global economic, political and communication landscape. It has also prompted new discussions around decolonization, dependency, and identity in Central Asia and the rest of the so-called post-Soviet space.

Since Russia announced mobilization in September 2022, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens and residents fled Russia to nearby countries (Reuters, 2022) in an urgent attempt to avoid being drafted into the war in Ukraine and to avoid the economic and political consequences of the war. In Russia, this movement of people became known as relocation and people fleeing Russia became colloquially known as “relocants” (“релоканты”), as opposed to migrants, emigrants, or refugees. Faced with limited options due to travel restrictions and skyrocketing ticket prices, thousands of these “relocants” fled to countries of Central Asia (Mirovaliev, 2022). This paper analyzes the term “relocant” and situates it in the context of migration and privilege in the so-called “post-Soviet space”.

At the same time, with millions of Central Asian migrants working in Russia and facing discrimination, economic disadvantages, media misrepresentation, police violence and other forms of marginalization (Abashin, 2014), migrants in Russia have been established as “the other” for the past three decades since the collapse of the USSR and continuing dependency of Central Asian countries on Russia. However, the influx of Russian citizens and residents seeking refuge in Central Asia since the start of the war in Ukraine demonstrated a possibility for a shift in how Russians position themselves vis-à-vis people in Central Asia, as well as how Central Asians think about the Russian population.

To unpack this complex issue, this paper conducts a critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 2015) of social media discourse around Russian “relocants” in Tajikistan. Using purposeful sampling, this study identifies and collects social media content that reflects the experience of “relocants” in Central Asia, specifically in Tajikistan, and posts that represent local attitudes in Tajikistan towards the influx of Russian citizens. This paper engages with the critical literature on issues of migration, decolonization in post-Soviet space, as well as post-Soviet dependencies and resistances. The paper contributes to the critical analysis of power, identity, media and knowledge production in Russia and Central Asia. The paper further suggests that the war in Ukraine only highlighted the existing importance of applying critical, post-colonial and decolonial approaches to study changing sensibilities in the so-called post-Soviet space.