Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:55:52.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Migrant Rights, Agency, and Vulnerability: Navigating Contradictions in the Eurasian Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2020

Caress Schenk Open the ORCID record for Caress Schenk [Opens in a new window]
Caress Schenk*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Migrants are often presented in simplified terms that focus on the threats they experience or pose to the host society. This produces an image of migrants who have no agency and are victims of their circumstances or who respond to their circumstances by turning to crime and illegality. In this special issue, we reframe migration by highlighting how migrants leverage the various vulnerabilities they encounter, turning them into agency and self-sufficiency. We explore different types of vulnerability and agency for migrants in the Eurasian region, which often originate from the same sources, including structural factors, state and governance practices, social networks, and gender roles. Through interactions with a variety of state and nonstate actors, migrants have the ability to make choices that reduce uncertainty and risk in their migration environment and on returning home. These choices coexist with vulnerability and a lack of formal rights but do not replace them, creating complex and contingent relationships between precarity and agency.

Keywords

Mobilitymigration policyprecarityagencyinformal practicesRussiaEurasia
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 4: Special Issue on Migrant Rights, Agency, and Vulnerability , July 2020 , pp. 637 - 643
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agustin, Laura Ma. 2003. “Forget Victimization: Granting Agency to Migrants.” Development 46 (3): 30–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alpes, Maybritt Jill. 2013. Migration Brokerage, Illegality, and the State in Anglophone Cameroon. DIIS Working Paper No. 2013:07. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies.Google Scholar
Andrijasevic, Rutvica. 2010. Migration, Agency and Citizenship in Sex Trafficking. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aradau, Claudia. 2004. “The Perverse Politics of Four-Letter Words: Risk and Pity in the Securitization of Human Trafficking.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33 (2): 251–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beissinger, Mark R. 2017. “Beyond the Neo-Weberian Yardstick? Thinking of the State in Multiple Registers.” In Paradox of Power: The Logics of State Weakness in Eurasia, edited by Heathershaw, John and Schatz, Edward, 232–242. Pittsburg, PA: University of Pittsburg Press.Google Scholar
Boucher, Anna K., and Gest, Justin. 2018. Crossroads: Comparative Immigration Regimes in a World of Demographic Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breunig, Christian, Cao, Xun, and Luedtke, Adam. 2012. “Global Migration and Political Regime Type: A Democratic Disadvantage.” British Journal of Political Science 42 (4): 825–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bylander, Maryann. 2019. “Is Regular Migration Safer Migration? Insights from Thailand.” Journal on Migration and Human Security 7 (1): 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chekirova, Ajar. 2018. “Exploring the Effect of Registration Documents on the Citizenship Rights of Rural Migrants in Kyrgyzstan.” In Eurasia on the Move: Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Dynamic Migration Region, edited by Laruelle, Marlene and Schenk, Caress, 89–97. Washington, DC: The George Washington University.Google Scholar
Cornelius, Wayne A. 2005. “Controlling ‘Unwanted’ Immigration: Lessons from the United States, 1993–2004.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 (4): 775–794.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahinden, Janine. 2016. “A Plea for the ‘De-migranticizationʼ of Research on Migration and Integration.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 39 (13): 2207–2225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doomernik, Jeroen, and Jandl, Michael, eds. 2008. Modes of Migration Regulation and Control in Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Hollifield, James. 1992. Immigrants, Markets, and States: The Political Economy of Postwar Europe. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hollifield, James. 2014. “France: Immigration and the Republican Tradition in France.” In Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective, edited by Hollifield, James F., Martin, Philip L., and Orrenius, Pia M., 157–187. 3rd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyle, Carolyn, Bosworth, Mary, and Dempsey, Michelle. 2011. “Labelling the Victims of Sex Trafficking: Expoloring the Borderland between Rhetoric and Reality.” Social & Legal Studies 20 (3): 313–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapur, Ratna. 2002. “The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the ʻNativeʼ Subject in International/Post-Colonial Femnist Legal Politics.” Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (1): 1–37.Google Scholar
Kelly, Liz. 2005. “ʻYou Can Find Anything You Wantʼ: A Critical Reflection on Research on Trafficking in Persons within and into Europe.” International Migration 43 (1–2): 235–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubal, Agnieszka. 2016. “Spiral Effect of the Law: Migrants’ Experiences of the State Law in Russia: A Comparative Perspective.” International Journal of Law in Context 12 (4): 453–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuznetsova, Irina, and Oksana, Mikheieva. 2020. Forced Displacement from Ukraine’s War-Torn Territories: Intersectionality and Power Geometry. Nationalities Papers: 1–17, doi:10.1017/nps.2020.34 Google Scholar
Kyle, David, and Siracusa, Christina A.. 2005. “Seeing the State Like a Migrant: Why So Many Non-Criminals Break Immigration Laws.” In Illicit Flows and Criminal Things: States, Borders, and the Other Side of Globalization, edited by van Schendel, Willem and Abraham, Itty, 153–176. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lahav, Gallya, and Guiraudon, Virginie. 2006. “Actors and Venues in Immigration Control: Closing the Gap between Political Demands and Policy Outcomes.” West European Politics 29 (2): 201–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena. 2018. “Introduction: The Informal View of the World. Key Challenges and Main Findings of the Global Informality Project.” In The Global Encyclopedia of Informality: Towards Understanding of Social and Cultural Complexity. Vol. 1, edited by Ledeneva, Alena, 1–28. London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Levitt, Peggy. 2012. “Whatʼs Wrong with Migration Scholarship? A Critique and a Way Forward.” Identities 19 (4): 493–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, Matthew. 2016. Fragile Migration Rights: Freedom of Movement in Post-Soviet Russia. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Philip L. 2014. “Germany.” In Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective, edited by James F. Hollifield, Philip L. Martin, and Pia M. Orrenius, 224–250. 3rd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Pren, Karen A.. 2012. “Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America.” Population and Development Review 38 (1): 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mirilovic, Nikola. 2010. “The Politics of Immigration: Dictatorship, Development, and Defense.” Comparative Politics 42 (3): 273–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mutua, Makau. 2001. “Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights.” Harvard International Law Journal 42 (1): 201–209.Google Scholar
Natter, Katharina. 2018. “Rethinking Immigration Policy Theory beyond ‘Western Liberal Democracies.’” Comparative Migration Studies 6 (1): 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piipponen, Minna, and Joni, Virkkunen. 2020. “The Remigration of Afghan Immigrants from Russia.” Nationalities Papers, 1– 17. doi:10.1017/nps.2019.84 Google Scholar
Radnitz, Scott. 2011. “Informal Politics and the State.” Comparative Politics 43(3): 351–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. 2013. “Clean Fake: Authenticating Documents and Persons in Migrant Moscow.” American Ethnologist 40 (3): 508–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, Madeleine. 2015. “Living from the Nerves: Deportability, Indeterminacy, and the ʻFeel of Lawʼ in Migrant Moscow.” Social Analysis 59 (4): 119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhs, Martin. 2018. “Labor Immigration Policies in High-Income Countries: Variations across Political Regimes and Varieties of Capitalism.” The Journal of Legal Studies 47 (S1): S89–S127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhs, Martin. 2013. The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schenk, Caress. 2018. Why Control Immigration: Strategic Uses of Migration Management in Russia . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, Adrian J. 2017. “Tyrants and Migrants: Authoritarian Immigration Policy.” Comparative Political Studies 50 (1): 14–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Srikantiah, Jayashri. 2007. “Perfect Victims and Real Survivors: The Iconic Victim in Domestic Human Trafficking Law.” Boston University Law Review 87 (1): 157–211.Google Scholar
Tomkinson, Sule. 2012. “The Multiplicity of Truths about Human Trafficking: Beyond ʻthe Sex Slaveʼ Discourse.” CEU Political Science Journal 7 (1): 50–67.Google Scholar
Torpey, John. 1997. “Coming and Going: On the State Monopolization of the Legitimate ʻMeans of Movement.ʼ” Sociological Theory 16 (3): 239–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tukmadiyeva, Malika. 2016. Propiska as a Tool of Discrimination in Central Asia . Central Asia Fellowship Papers No. 12. Washington, DC: The George Washington University.Google Scholar
Turaeva, Rano. 2020. Muslim Orders in Russia: Trade Networks and Hijama Healing. Nationalities Papers, 1– 14. doi:10.1017/nps.2019.90 Google Scholar
Zotova, Natalia, and Jeffrey H., Cohen. 2020. Left Behind? Russia’s Entry Bars and Gender Relations in Tajikistan. Nationalities Papers: 1– 15, doi:10.1017/nps.2019.111 Google Scholar