Policy Streams and Immigration to Russia: Competing and Complementary Interests at the Federal and Local Levels

Abstract

This article uses Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework to explain forms of national-and region-level governance used in the Russian Federation to manage unprecedented levels of international immigration. First, we identify the ways that the Russian federal government has legislated and governed international migration from 1991 through 2010. We then compare the federal level to the case of the Krasnodar region, an ethnically diverse region in the North Caucasus. We find that that migration policy adoption in Russia at the federal level is relatively immune to economic trends or labour needs but more sensitive to foreign and domestic political objectives. At the regional level, local socio-political and economic concerns predominate and political objectives are secondary. Finally, we argue that migration policy changes or adopted policy at the regional level may be explained by an interaction effect between changes in political leadership, federal level policy adoption, and regional level context.

Migration Governance and Policy in the Global South: Introduction and Overview

“…First, they add to the emerging body of research on migration governance and policy in Southern countries. While there are studies on these issues in the Global South (e.g., Diedhiou, 2015, Hansen, 2012, Hofmann et al, 2016, Hugo, 2009, Raimundo, 2009, research in this area remains more developed for Northern countries (e.g., Adepoju et al, 2010, Cerna, 2014, Filindra and Kov acs, 2012, Finotelli and Echeverr ıa, 2017, Koslowski, 2014, Collinson, 1993, Guiraudon, 2000. And, the sheer volume of migration in Southern countries calls for more research attention, with recent analyses suggesting, for instance, that South-South migration slightly exceeded South-North migration in 2015 (IOM, 2018).…”