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Paper short abstract:

The paper proposes a two-fold approach to conceptualize the nativist phenomenon in contemporary Russia, particularly in regard to migrants from Central Asia states and the Caucasus.

Paper long abstract:

Rejection of immigration has become a major political factor in many countries, including in Europe and North America. The notion of nativism, understood as a specific form of nationalism, can be used to analyze forms of this rejection insofar as it involves promoting the interests and way of life of “natives” to the detriment of “migrants”. This paper adopts a two-fold approach to conceptualize the nativist phenomenon in contemporary Russia, particularly in regard to migrants from Central Asia states and the Caucasus.

First, I consider discursive expressions of nativism as observed among nationalist actors as well as in the rhetoric of the Russian authorities, in a context of widespread xenophobia. This reflection draws on existing literature on nativism and focuses on various interpretations of the historical slogan “Russia for the Russians”. By analyzing the nationalists’ discourse, I show that the slogan has been reshaped as fundamentally nativist in the Russian ethnonationalist circles in light of increasing immigration from the states of Central Asia and the Caucasus since the 2000s.

Second, I argue that popular expressions of nativism need to be taken into account, including those linked to mass violence. Based on surveys, analysis of the media and field data, this paper considers a series of anti-migrant riots that occurred throughout Russia since the 2000s. These riots, often — but not always — supported by organized nationalist movements, involve demands that can be defined as nativist in that they concern protection of “natives” (korennye) from “foreigners” or “migrants”, understood in ethnic or racial terms and deemed to be the cause of social ills, e.g. crime. The cases I studied suggest that these forms of nativism tend to persist in spite of the observed decline of organized Russian opposition nationalism and that of hate crime rates in the 2010s. I also argue that anti-migrant rioting is not always correlated with Russian ethnonationalism, since the non-Russian minorities can also be the instigators of ethnic and/or anti-migrant violence.

Overall, the paper contributes to comparative studies of nativism in countries that face mass immigration, and tries to capture theoretically the realities challenging Central Asian migrants in today’s Russia.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the influence of migration on youth segment of labour market in Tajikistan, taking into account education and COVID19. The paper is based on mixed-method approach data, including retrospective quantitative data on 2000 (2017), data of 6000 (2022), and qualitative data (2019).

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the influence of migration on youth segment of labour market in Tajikistan. Particularly, it investigates how migration experience impacts on employment status of youth, who returned home, and what is the role of education for returned migrants to join labour market. According to some researches, when a migrant returns home, he gets better jobs than before migration, using obtained skills and capital. I argue that migration experience has negative effect on employment status in home country for returned migrants, they get worse jobs than they had had before migration. Returned migrants are more likely to be unemployed or become inactive – to fall into the NEET-group (Not in education, employment or training) than youth who has no migration history. Also, due to COVID19 the effect of migration experience may differ. So, we will investigate effect of migration to youth unemployment and it’s changing over COVID19 period. To estimate the effect of migration we grouped youth into migrants and control group (youth without migration experience). This paper is based on data collected using mixed-method approach, including retrospective quantitative data on 2000 youth of Tajikistan from 2017, and data from qualitative research with NEET-youth in Tajikistan from 2019. For the period after COVID19 we will use data that is being collected among 6000 youth by End of April 2022.

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Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on Chinese business which has been evolving in Kazakhstan since 1990s and discusses its economic and social benefits and disbenefits

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on Chinese business which has been evolving in Kazakhstan since 1990s and represents big companies, medium enterprises and small entrepreneurs functioning in various economic sectors and regions. Chinese businesses and labor force have had multiple positive and negative impacts, analysed at macro-, meso, and microlevel. The paper is based on a wide range of the Kazakh and Chinese governmental and international statistics and secondary sources.

Big Chinese companies contribute to developing sectors such as energy, transport, construction, communication, agriculture, services (banking, catering, medical services), and support overall economic development of Kazakhstan. They assist in diversifying national economy by investing in transit transportation infrastructure in a land-locked country, in addition to its primary focus on oil and gas extracting industries. Chinese companies create new jobs, retrain local labor, and invest in social programs and community-based projects addressing social issues.

The impact of Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on a number of domestic sectors of Kazakhstan is seen as challenging. On the one hand, Chinese SMEs supply the market with goods and services; on the other, local enterprises lose in competition with Chinese businesses. This has led to a substantial decline of footwear, clothing and textile sectors, amongst other. The paper addresses a variety of external and internal causes of this decline, as well as other controversial consequences.

The official recruitment of Chinese qualified labor force includes CEOs, managers, professionals and skilled workers. Anti-Chinese sentiments lead to concerns about rising competition in the labor market; employment and remuneration practices in Chinese companies are a frequent subject of public scrutiny.

There are also segments in Kazakhstan’s labor market that specialize in trading in Chinese goods and provide livelihood to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, salespersons, drivers and security personnel. If trade volume with China were to decline, Kazakhstan would suffer not only from a shortage of goods, but also from unemployment.

Thus, the paper discusses both the benefits and disbenefits of Chinese business presence in Kazakhstan at all levels, starting from the most positive (big companies) to mixed (SMEs), to mostly negative impacts, specifically those of petty trade. The complexities of the Chinese business are intertwined with local labor market challenges and have to be studied in depth in order to inform proactive migration policies in the future.

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Paper short abstract:

return migration has become one of the social phenomena affecting the lives of migrants themselves, their transnational communities, and rural communities in which they had to reintegrate

Paper long abstract:

The years of the pandemic have become a challenge for thousands of Kyrgyz migrants and communities dependent on their remittances and social investments.

return migration has become one of the social phenomena affecting the lives of migrants themselves, their transnational communities, and rural communities in which they had to reintegrate

This paper explores the role of returned migrants through the prism of activism for the local community as well as their transnational communities. This work examines the attitudes of migrants themselves and their role in the community. How they saw it before the crisis and what role they played during the crisis years. Female return migration is on the spot.

The sources of the data are two pieces of research. One has been done during the pre-pandemic year and examined transnational functions of Kyrgyz communities in Moscow. Second has been done during the pandemic and examined the role of return migrants in their communities in rural Kyrgyzstan. We participated in migrant activities and meetings. Gathering data through interviews and informal focus groups.

As a result, we discuss the role of transnational communities in the crisis and pre-crisis periods. How this role differs in practice, as well as give recommendations for future research.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper aims at analysing the status of Central Asian migrant communities in Portugal (mainly Uzbekistanis and Kazakhstanis) in the context of the perception of their ethnic and socio-cultural identity by the Portuguese society.

Paper long abstract:

«That's why some of the Ukrainians are Muslims!» claimed a city councilor of a small portuguese town, some one hundred kms. north of Lisbon, when I was trying to explain him that the region, already a known destination of the Ukrainian migration to Portugal since the late 90s, had also received several tens of Central Asian migrants from Uzbekistan. Fifteen or even ten years ago, for him as for most Portuguese, the distinction between people from different post-soviet countries - Georgians or Kazakhs, Russians or Moldovans - was far from obvious; even ethnic Koreans coming from Kazakhstan were once identified as «Chinese from Russia», and I keep a copy of an email from a local administration office mentioning the arrival of «citizens of Azerbistan». They were all «Imigrantes de Leste», «Eastern Immigrants» - and they were all perceived as White, European Immigrants, clearly separated from the two other groups of migrants the Portuguese society was used to: the Black Africans coming from the former Portuguese colonies (mainly Cape Verde and Angola), and the Brazilians who were then crossing the Atlantic by tens of thousands; the leader of a right-wing group even greeted their arrival with the words: »At last, we are receiving beautiful immigrants!»...