Russian Migration to Central Asia and the Caucasus: Shifting Narratives

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Many of the hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled the country following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine left for former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus. This panel examines how the sudden increase in Russian migration to these two regions – in conjunction with their colonial past -- has shifted Russian and local narratives regarding citizenship and belonging in Eurasia. Timur Dadabaev focuses on Russian and Belarussian migrants’ perceptions of Central Asia as a new international migration destination, while Margaret Hanson and Gaukhar Baltabayeva examine how the conflict, domestic repression, and their experiences in Central Asia and the Caucasus have shaped migrants’ understandings of citizenship and nationality. Elena Borisova draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with Russian men in Uzbekistan to analyze how these migrants have reframed their experiences of uprootedness and emigration. Finally, Sofia Gavrilova unpacks the popular narratives associated with the increasing influence of the Russian emigrants in Georgia through a long-term ethnographic study in Tbilisi.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Yakov Lurie, U of Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Papers

• Shifting Migration Dynamics: Central Asia as a New Destination for Russian Migrants in the Aftermath of the 2022 Ukraine Invasion - Timur Dadabaev, U of Tsukuba (Japan)

• Belonging in Exile: Narratives among Russian Migrants to Central Asia and the Caucasus - Margaret Hanson, Middlebury College; Gaukhar Baltabayeva, Arizona State U

• Crafting Cosmopolitan Selves?: Wartime (Im)mobilities of Young Russian Men - Elena Borisova, U of Sussex (UK)

• 'Russians Go Home': Understanding the Neo-Imperial Narrative toward Russian Migration in Tbilisi (2022-2023) - Sofia Gavrilova, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (Germany)

Discussant

• Claudia Sadowski-Smith, Arizona State U