Russian Roulette for Migrants: Creation of Uncertainty and the Pragmatics of Fatalism

Abstract

This article focuses on current Russian immigration legislation and practices. On the one hand, foreigners from a number of post-Soviet countries are allowed to freely cross borders under the existing policy; on the other hand, that very policy creates complicated and expensive ways to regulate the status of such people. As a result, the vast majority of foreign labour migrants have paper issues, and the very status of the correct papers is in the gray zone of constant negotiations between migrants, entrepreneurs, police officers and human rights activists. In this article, I examine the “180/90” rule under which a special programme automatically records people entering and leaving the country – and thus regulates the stay of foreigners in Russia. The frequent glitches in the programme create a space for unpredictable decision-making, and migrants use it to bypass the legislation and partially legalise their stay. This plexus of policy, technology and migrants’ daily practices illustrates how the Russian immigration legislation regulates migration by creating uncertainty.