Migration And Identity In Eurasia

Migration, a force throughout the world, has special meanings in the former Soviet lands. Soviet successor countries, each with strong ethnic associations, have pushed some racial groups out and pulled others back home. Forcible relocations of the Stalin era were reversed, and areas previously closed for security reasons were opened to newcomers. These countries represent a fascinating mix of the motivations and achievements of migration in Russia and Central Asia. Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia examines patterns of migration and sheds new light on government interests, migrant motivations, historical precedents, and community identities. The contributors come from a variety of disciplines: political science, sociology, history, and geography. Initial chapters offer overall assessments of contemporary migration debates in the region. Subsequent chapters feature individual case studies that highlight continuity and change in migration debates in imperial and Soviet periods. Several chapters treat specific topics in Central Eurasia and the Far East, such as the movement of ethnic Kazakhs from Mongolia to Kazakhstan and the continuing attractiveness to migrants of supposedly uneconomical cities in Siberia.

The theme of Migration and Identity is of special concern at a time both of massive worldwide migration and of apparently intensifying national, ethnic, and racial conflicts. Problems of migration and the resulting reconfigurations of social identity are fundamental issues for the twenty-first century. This volume spans the whole complex global web of migratory patterns with contributions linking Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, without losing the particularities of local and personal experience. This paperback edition in the Memory and Narrative series explores these issues and the sustaining or abandoning of memory and identity as people move between fundamentally different cultures, in a number of recent social settings, from a number of methodological perspectives. These focused "case studies" offer glimpses into the interior migration experiences, into the processes of constructing and reconstructing identity without forgetting that, both theoretically and empirically, the problem of identity is complex and multifaceted. All of the essays rely heavily on oral history and personal testimony, highlighting the experience of individuals and small groups, without ignoring the tension that exists between the local and the global. Memories of oppression or totalitarianism are one of the driving forces behind some of these migrations; and the transmission of memories and myths between family generations is one of the ways in which migrations are interpreted. In looking both backward and forward, Migration and Identity, offers an acute view of migratory patterns and their impact on the newcomers and the local cultures. It will be of interest to cultural and oral historians and researchers of concerned with migration and integration.

A collection that “eloquently examines the numerous forms of movement from and across Central, Eastern Europe and Russia from a historical perspective” (Comparative Literature Studies). Combining methodological and theoretical approaches to migration and mobility studies with detailed analyses of historical, cultural, or social phenomena, the works collected here provide an interdisciplinary perspective on how migrations and mobility altered identities and affected images of the “other.” From walkways to railroads to airports, the history of travel provides a context for considering the people and events that have shaped Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Migration, a force throughout the world, has special meanings in the former Soviet lands. Soviet successor countries, each with strong ethnic associations, have pushed some racial groups out and pulled others back home. Forcible relocations of the Stalin era were reversed, and areas previously closed for security reasons were opened to newcomers. These countries represent a fascinating mix of the motivations and achievements of migration in Russia and Central Asia.Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia examines patterns of migration and sheds new light on government interests, migrant motivations, historical precedents, and community identities. The contributors come from a variety of disciplines: political science, sociology, history, and geography. Initial chapters offer overall assessments of contemporary migration debates in the region. Subsequent chapters feature individual case studies that highlight continuity and change in migration debates in imperial and Soviet periods. Several chapters treat specific topics in Central Eurasia and the Far East, such as the movement of ethnic Kazakhs from Mongolia to Kazakhstan and the continuing attractiveness to migrants of supposedly uneconomical cities in Siberia.

Globalizing Migration History is a major step forward in comparative global migration history. Looking at the period 1500-2000 it presents a new universal method to quantify and qualify cross-cultural migrations, which makes it possible to detect regional trends and explain differences in migration patterns across the globe in the last half millennium. The contributions in this volume, written by specialists on Russia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia and South East Asia, show that such a method offers a fruitful starting point for rigorous comparisons. Furthermore the volume is an explicit invitation to other (economic, cultural, social and political) historians to include migration more explicitly and systematically in their analyses, and thus reach a deeper understanding of the impact of cross-cultural migrations on social change. Contributors are: Sunil Amrith, Ulbe Bosma, Gijs Kessler, Jelle van Lottum, Jan Lucassen, Leo Lucassen, Mireille Mazard, Adam McKeown, Atsushi Ota, Vijaya Ramaswamy,Osamu Saito, Jianfa Shen, Ryuto Shimada, Willard Sunderland, and Yuki Umeno.

This book addresses the impact of migration on the formation and transformation of identity and its continuous negotiations. Its ground is the understanding of identity as a complex social phenomenon resulting from constant negotiations between personal conditions, social relationships, and institutional frameworks. Migrations, understood as dynamic processes that do not end when landing in the host country, offer the best conditions to analyze the construction and transformation of social identities in the postcolonial and globalized societies. Searching for novel epistemologies and methodologies, the research questions here addressed are how identity is negotiated in migration processes, and how these negotiations work in contemporary multiethnic Europe. This edited volume brings to the field a novel convergence of theoretical and empirical approaches by gathering together scholars from different countries of Europe and the Mediterranean area, from different disciplines and backgrounds, challenging the traditional discipline division.

Symbolic boundaries, cultural differences and ethnic conflicts have gained significance and new meanings in a global situation characterized by the dissolution of traditional political and societal structures. Communications and political and economic interactions increasingly cross the borders of states, nations and ethnic communities, and yet symbolic borders and separate group identities are nevertheless asserted. The perceived efforts of migrants to maintain their cultural and ethnic identities are often blamed as a cause of conflict within nation states. This intriguing volume recognizes that migrants with an Islamic background are seen as especially problematic cases. Turks are the biggest category among Muslim migrants in Europe and more than one third of all Muslim migrants in Europe are from Turkey. Referring primarily to immigration from Turkey, this book combines both exemplary case studies of Turks within Europe and theoretical papers with innovative perspectives on the relations between integration and identity.