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- Convenors:
-
Sergey Abashin
(European University at St. Petersburg)
Aksana Ismailbekova (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO))
Ekaterina Demintseva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
Elena Borisova (University of Sussex)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Rano Turaeva
(Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Migration
- Location:
- Room 105
- Sessions:
- Friday 24 June, -
Time zone: Asia/Tashkent
Short Abstract:
The panel participants are invited to discuss various aspects of adaptation practices of Central Asians in migration, the involvement of state institutions in these processes, and the aspirations of migrants and their family members.
Long Abstract:
In recent years, migration from countries of Central Asia to Russia has become massive in scale, which has changed the whole way of life in Central Asia, transforming institutions, networks, practices, life plans, and self-perceptions. Migrants who integrate into the Russian society do so with varying dynamics, on many levels, following different trajectories with different goals in mind. For some people, migration has a transnational labor-related nature, while for others, labor migration turns into full-fledged relocation to Russia with the whole family, and still others have not yet decided on their future plans. Migrants choose their integration strategy based on the type of migration. This choice also predetermines migrants’ relations with the countries and societies of origin. The panel participants are invited to discuss various aspects of adaptation practices of Central Asians in migration, the involvement of state institutions in these processes, and the aspirations of migrants and their family members.
The panel will feature four papers describing different scenarios of Central Asian migrants’ inclusion in Russia and of transnational life between Central Asia and Russia. The paper topics will bring together various perspectives on integration, examining institutional activities and the shaping of ethical standards, migrants’ interactions with the receiving society and the role of the sending society in the emergence of the culture of migration, and finally, a comparative analysis of Kyrgyzstani, Tajikistani, and Uzbekistani experiences. Elena Borisova (University of Manchester, UK) will present a paper titled From ‘kul’turnyi chelovek’ to a migrant worker: migration and the crafting of a modern self. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in rural Tajikistan conducted in 2017-2018, she analyzes the complexity of the relationship between migration, the pursuit of the good life, and people’s projects of self-fashioning. The paper by Ekaterina Demintseva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia), Integration of Children of Migrants from Central Asia in Russian Schools, will examine the strategies developed by school administrations and teachers to work with Central Asian children and the extent to which these strategies help the children adapt in the Russian society. Rano Turaeva (LMU Munich, Germany) will participate in the panel with his paper Uncertain trajectories of migration of informality: examples from Central Asia and Russia, analyzing flexibility, navigation and entrepreneurship as the important skills that migrants need to possess in order to live mobile lives. Aksana Ismailbekova (Leibniz-Zentrum-Moderner Orient, Germany) in her paper Chalma-grad: the mobilisation of translocal lineage based community in Moscow will consider how migrants’ money gives life to group solidarity based on trust, lineage identity, and reciprocity.
The languages of the panel are English and Russian.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 24 June, 2022, -Aksana Ismailbekova (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO))
Paper short abstract:
Kyrgyzstan remains one of the most migration dependent regions in the world. Many migrants in Russia faced difficulties during COVID-19, Kyrgyz migrants from Kara-Kulja in particular helped each other in different ways, depending on themigrants' needs.
Paper long abstract:
Kyrgyzstan remains one of the most migration dependent regions in the world. It is nosurprise then that when borders closed and lockdowns came into place in the wake of Covid-19, this part of the world was struck particularly hard. During the pandemic, migrants from Kyrgyzstan as well as from other Central Asian countries were frequently in the news. Withmany migrants unable to work during lockdowns or not able to travel to Russia, remittances plummeted before rapidly recovering as migration restarted.However, despite the difficulties many migrants in Russia faced during COVID-19, Kyrgyz migrants from Kara-Kulja in particular helped each other in different ways, depending on themigrants' needs. For example, the translocal lineage community worked on a volunteer basis. Among the Kyrgyz, the formation of such a translation lineage based- community is based onmutual support, unity, care and solidarity, that goes beyond their current place but extends asfar as their own villages in Kyrgyzstan. Initially, migrants had to survive on their own, but when it came to helping each other in bad times or transferring a deceased person to Kyrgyzstan, community members had to learn to mobilise quickly as there was no alternative.The formation of such a community is based on trust, lineage identity, and reciprocity.However, money gives life to group solidarity
Ekaterina Demintseva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
Paper short abstract:
In recent years, labor migrants from Central Asia increasingly often bring their children to Russia. Since 2017, I have been studying the ways in which migrant children adapt in schools and the problems they face. Studies conducted in schools in Moscow, Moscow Region, Tomsk and Irkutsk
Paper long abstract:
In recent years, labor migrants from Central Asia increasingly often bring their children to Russia. This is due to the fact that some of them are able to find good jobs in Russia and to rent an apartment, so it becomes feasible for them to live in Russia with their families. Some migrants bring their children over so that they could subsequently stay in the country for study and work. For this category of migrants, Russia appears to be a country that provides more opportunities for their children in the future.
Since 2017, I have been studying the ways in which migrant children adapt in schools and the problems they face at these educational institutions. Studies conducted in schools in Moscow, Moscow Region, Tomsk and Irkutsk indicated that teachers and school administrators identify migrant children as a problem category of pupils. Many teachers understand children of migrants specifically as children from Central Asian families. Determining their strategies for working with migrant children is left to the schools themselves. Since there are no state-run adaptation programs for migrant children in Russia, in each case the school finds its own way of working with this category of pupils. In the report I will review the school’s strategies for adaptation of migrant children.
I will also analyze the stereotypes regarding migrant children that exist among teachers and parents of local children. How does this attitude affect the ability of a migrant child to enroll in school and integrate into school space? How does a school administration understand the situation of a multicultural environment and what measures are being taken by schools to create a comfortable school space for all? In my conclusion I will address the question as to whether the Russian school can be considered a place for the integration of migrant children today.
• Demintseva E. 2019. Educational infrastructure created in condition of social exclusion: ‘Kyrgyz’ clubs’ for migrant children in Moscow. Central Asia Survey
• Demintseva E. 2018. ‘Migrant Schools’ and the ‘Children of Migrants’: Constructing Boundaries around and inside School Space. Race, Ethnicity and Education
• Demintseva E. 2017. Labour Migrants in Post-Soviet Moscow: Patterns of Settlement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 43 (15): 2556-2572
• Demintseva E., Zelenova D., Kosmidis E., and Oparin D. 2018. Opportunities for adaptation of migrant children in Moscow and Moscow region schools. Demografitsheskoe obozrenie. 4: 80-109
• Demintseva, E., and Peshkova V. 2014. Migranty iz Srednei Azii v Moskve. Demoscope Weekly: 597- 598
Elena Borisova (University of Sussex)
Paper short abstract:
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in rural Tajikistan, this paper addresses the complexity of the relationship between migration, the pursuit of the good life, and people’s projects of self-fashioning.
Paper long abstract:
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in rural Tajikistan conducted in 2017-2018, this paper seeks to interrogate economistic assumptions about the logics of Tajikistani migration to Russia. In doing so, it addresses the complexity of the relationship between migration, the pursuit of the good life, and people’s projects of self-fashioning. Analysing how people make sense of their struggles using the lexicon of modernity, it shows that far from being an ‘automatic’ response to general economic and political breakdown, migration decisions are embedded in the experiences of living and imagining one’s present and future in a place, constituted by the multi-layered histories of mobilities, where present forms of sociality and categories of person are informed by spatial and social transformations brought about by the Soviet modernisation project. During my fieldwork, being/becoming modern emerged as a serious concern for a community that had not questioned its modernity a couple of decades ago. I argue that the departure of Soviet modernity followed by the normalisation of mass labour migration of Tajik nationals to Russian cities has resulted in migration becoming intrinsic to the very project of becoming persons with a capacity to be ‘modern’. Driven by economic and social upheavals of the post-Soviet period, migration aims to fill the gap not only in family budgets, but also in people’s sense of self. Yet, since the Russian migration regime is premised on the ‘flattened’ representation of nationals of Central Asian countries as unskilled migrant workers, this gap cannot be closed, their presence on the territory of Russia being contingent on subordinating their aspirations for modernity to the physical prowess and docility needed to construct modern life for the Russian middle class.