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Abstract

Focusing on Russian migrants who left amid war and intensifying repression for Georgia, Armenia, and the EU, this chapter examines the conditions under which migrants engage in cross-border activism in their new host contexts. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it identifies types of activism based on risk exposure and durability of engagement and then develops a model of migrant activism structured around three interrelated dimensions: legal security, economic security, and perceived efficacy. The paper argues that legal security in the host country provides a necessary foundation for sustained engagement, while economic security shapes migrants’ capacity to mobilize resources. Perceived efficacy mediates between structural opportunity and action, influencing whether migrants believe collective efforts can produce meaningful change. By situating activism within varying migration regimes and contexts of precarity, the paper highlights how geopolitical shifts and differential incorporation policies shape migrants’ agency and political engagement across borders. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates on wartime mobility and transnational collective action.