Sherzod Eraliev

Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe remain an important hub for migration, with significant implications for both the societies in the region and migrants themselves. Migration can affect illiberal practices by contributing to political polarization, the adoption of restrictive immigration policies, the spread of xenophobia and discrimination, and economic competition. Global Migration and Illiberalism in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe analyses how illiberal states manage migration to absorb resistance and how migration impacts the illiberal political agenda. With this dual perspective, the contributions provide an understanding of how migration becomes a pivotal factor in shaping political discourse, policies, and governance practices within the context of illiberal states. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the studies on Russia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine show how illiberalism shapes, influences, and enables states to take advantage of migration to secure and advance political goals. Simultaneously, migration processes can challenge authoritarianism and illiberal political goals by fostering diversity, networking, democracy promotion, and political empowerment. Finally, the volume aims to make the conceptualization of illiberalism more relevant for the study of political and administrative practices and ways of thinking in this region. Political decisions are made in structures which are not only shaped by domestic considerations but are also deeply entwined with the globalized markets and the shadow economy that transcend national borders economically and culturally. Furthermore, the examination of illiberalism vis- -vis migration in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe illustrates the global socio-political tendencies in many other parts of the world. Anna-Liisa Heusala is a scholar in Russian and Eurasian studies at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Kaarina Aitamurto is a lecturer at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Sherzod Eraliev is a senior researcher at the Sociology of Law Department, Lund University, and a senior researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.

This open access book contributes new theoretical and comparative insights on migrant agency, undocumentedness and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes. The book is conceived as a critical reflection on the contemporary migration regime scholarship, and, more generally, on comparative migration studies, which primarily focus on migrants’ experiences and immigration policies in the context of liberal democracies in North America and Western Europe. Addressing this gap is particularly important when considering the fact that many new migration hubs are nondemocratic, which in turn requires us to revise or produce new frameworks of analysis beyond existing and dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies. This book takes up the case study of Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey—two archetypal non-Western, nondemocratic regimes and key migration hotspots worldwide—and investigates how migration governance outcomes are shaped by the informal power geometries and extralegal processes in physical and digital landscapes in which migrant workers, employers, middlemen, landlords, street world actors and street-level bureaucrats negotiate the contemporary migration system. This lively ethnography presents new empirical material, a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying migrants’ experiences and migration governance processes in non-Western migration regimes.

This open access book contributes new theoretical and comparative insights on migrant agency, undocumentedness and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes. The book is conceived as a critical reflection on the contemporary migration regime scholarship, and, more generally, on comparative migration studies, which primarily focus on migrants’ experiences and immigration policies in the context of liberal democracies in North America and Western Europe. Addressing this gap is particularly important when considering the fact that many new migration hubs are nondemocratic, which in turn requires us to revise or produce new frameworks of analysis beyond existing and dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies. This book takes up the case study of Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey—two archetypal non-Western, nondemocratic regimes and key migration hotspots worldwide—and investigates how migration governance outcomes are shaped by the informal power geometries and extralegal processes in physical and digital landscapes in which migrant workers, employers, middlemen, landlords, street world actors and street-level bureaucrats negotiate the contemporary migration system. This lively ethnography presents new empirical material, a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying migrants’ experiences and migration governance processes in non-Western migration regimes.