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

Russkaia ruletka dlia migrantov: proizvodstvo neopredelennosti i pragmatika fatalizma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541522040017

EDN: HWPGIX

Type of publication: Research Article

Submitted: 05.09.2021

Accepted: 01.12.2021

About author(s)

Sergei Abashin | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4873-1596 | s-abashin@mail.ru | European University at St. Petersburg (6/1a Gagarinskaya Str., St. Petersburg, 191187, Russia)

Keywords

transnational migration, migration policy, Central Asia, 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.

Funding Information

This research was supported by the following institutions and grants: Russian Science Foundation, https://doi.org/10.13039/501100006769 [grant no. 14-18-02149, 14-18-02149А]

Citation

Abashin, S.N. 2022. Russkaia ruletka dlia migrantov: proizvodstvo neopredelennosti i pragmatika fatalizma [Russian Roulette for Migrants: Creation of Uncertainty and the Pragmatics of Fatalism]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 4: 5–25. https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869541522040017 EDN: HWPGIX

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