Global frameworks, local realities: migrant resettlement in the Russian Federation

Flynn, Moya (2001). Global frameworks, local realities: migrant resettlement in the Russian Federation. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The thesis explores the 'return' migration and resettlement experience of members of ethnic Russian and Russian speaking migrant populations who over the period 1991-2000 left their homes in the former republics of the Soviet Union to resettle on the territory of the Russian Federation, their 'historical homeland'. The study focuses upon individual experiences of resettlement in two regions of the Russian Federation, but locates these experiences within the context of the wider regional, national and global migration regimes. The thesis traces the development of the institutions and legislation of the Russian federal and regional migration regimes over the period 1995-2001. The study demonstrates that the way in which the migration process (the migration movement and subsequent resettlement) and the space of 'return' are constructed, through political and non-political discourse and practice, often conflicts with migrant experiences of the same process and their expectations of 'return'. It charts how migrants, despite displacement and the often constraining features of the surrounding migration environment, begin to re-construct their own sense of 'home' at the site of settlement. The study concludes that rather than the migration process of the Russian populations from the former republics being a 'return' to a 'homeland', for the individual migrant the process represents an attempt to re-create an immediate 'home', that is primarily achieved through a reliance upon personal networks of family and friends.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):