Labour, Mobility and Informal Practices in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Mobility and migration increased rapidly following the end of the Cold War period and the collapse of communist regimes. These developments led to the emergence of new national, regional and international mobility regimes (e.g., the Commonwealth of Independent States, the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union). These newly established mobility regimes-encompassing visa regulations, union regulations, refugee politics, labour market regulations, migration regulations and capital globalisation-rendered these nation-states visible in new ways and placed state-society relations at the centre of popular discussions (Schiller and Salazar 2013) . For many travellers, mobile workers, migrants, refugees and other mobile entrepreneurs moving beyond their hometown or country, these new mobility experiences and strategies generated new challenges, hardships and uncertainties. The social and kinship networks, which served as alternative (to the state's) welfare structures in their home countries, were no longer available in their host countries, leaving individuals in more precarious positions and rather vulnerable (Turaeva 2016). Another key contributing factor was the rapid proliferation of draconian immigration laws and policies within various migration regimes (Coutin 2003;De Genova 2004), a global trend that produced millions of undocumented migrant workers for informal economies.However, despite tightening immigration laws and flourishing informal economies, legal uncertainty, increased mobility and globalisation, mobile people became increasingly innovative and transnational, whereas a growing number of mobile entrepreneurs have found their niches within and beyond these processes and structures. Since mobility does not recognise rigid state legal systems and boundaries, mobile actors have found alternative ways of navigating restrictive legal landscapes and of organising their economic activities and mobile lives. Today mobile people represent the largest category of people navigating their daily survival through mobile lives beyond nation-state legal systems, crossing multiple geographic and digital boundaries and dealing with diverse power structures, institutions, brokers and gatekeepers. The contributions in this volume include original, fieldwork-based examples from Russia, Central Asia, Eastern

Migration in the Context of Climate and Environmental Changes within Central Asia and to the European Union and the Russian Federation

“…On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation began its aggression against Ukraine, disrupting the stability of all neighbouring and non-neighbouring countries in the European and Central Asian regions. The Russian Federation has been traditionally the top one destination of migrant workers from Central Asian countries for several reasons (Turaeva and Urinboyev, 2021;Urinboyev and Eraliev, 2022). The Russian Federation and Central Asian countries share similar cultural, linguistic and religious features as well as strong political and historical backgrounds and travel permissions.…”

Relations of Debt and Credit Networks in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan, Russia and Kazakhstan

“…Newly independent states were not economically prepared to accommodate increased mobilities, new constellations of border disputes, global challenges, and security issues. The informalization of economies and politics was thus one of the visible developments in the region overall (Turaeva 2014;Turaeva and Urinboyev 2021), as citizens and residents of independent Soviet republics were left to fend for themselves to survive; this also opened opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation. Specifically, a variety of coping mechanisms developed as survival schemas, including flourishing informal economies and the further strengthening of kinship and other systems of belonging in the context of economic collapse and the absence of a social welfare system.…”