Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on how those who are sedentary cope with the mobility of others and with their own immobility. With a dearth of well-paying jobs in post-Soviet, Tajik Badakhshan, many Badakhshanis have left their homeland to find work in the capital Dushanbe, or in Russia or Afghanistan. This mobility runs in stark contrast to the Soviet period when movement was state-controlled. Badakhshanis speak positively about the potential for exploration outside of Badakhshan, but economic-driven migration disrupts established social roles and kinship obligations. Badakhshanis strive to maintain an unchanging homeland amidst the whirling vortex of mobility; but with few men left in the villages, gendered and generational roles must be renegotiated to create an aura of stability. The Badakhshani experience helps challenge the dichotomy between mobility and immobility by demonstrating that the two contribute simultaneously to the negotiation of meaning ascribed to places and social networks.