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ABSTRACT
This article extends the application of transnationalism as an analytical perspective by using it within the context of migration between Russia and Kazakhstan, and integrates the classification of transnational social spaces suggested by Thomas Faist with an outline of processes for the re/production of geographic-societal spatial configurations introduced in the literature by Ludger Pries. The article indicates the interconnected types of transnational social spaces that exist across the Russia-Kazakhstan border – transnational kinship groups and transnational circuits. It argues that the re/production of these spaces is influenced by the current processes of supra-nationalisation, inter-nationalisation, and re-nationalisation encompassing Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as by the common past of these countries within the USSR, and addresses a gap in the existing literature by exploring these influences. The research findings reveal that while transnational relationships can be re/produced in order to satisfy social actors’ needs stemming from the re-nationalisation and overlooked by inter-nationalisation and supra-nationalisation, further developments of these processes, which take such needs into account, do not necessarily lead to the disappearance of transnational social space(s). This is due to the presence of close relationships across the border (transnational kinship groups) and the existence of shared material infrastructure (transnational circuits).
Acknowledgements
This article discusses the results of the research ‘[Foreign citizens in the Novosibirsk region: factors for construction of transnational practices]’, which was conducted from 2012 to 2014 as part of the collective project, ‘Cross-border relations in the Asian part of Russia: a comprehensive assessment of benefits and risks’. I would like to thank two anonymous JEMS referees for their comments on the article’s draft.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
ORCiD
Larisa Kosygina http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2853-7195
Notes
1. Encompassing the majority of the former Soviet republics, this migration system also includes other countries such as China, Turkey, and Vietnam. It is an open system – in other words, its member countries also participate in other systems.
2. VKontakte is a Russian social networking service similar to Facebook.
3. Information about the dynamics of migration exchange between Russia and Kazakhstan as well as between the Novosibirsk region and Kazakhstan was taken from issues of The Demographic Yearbook of Russia published between 1997 and 2015. Issues published since 2002 are available at http://www.gks.ru.
4. This difference in the migration exchange dynamic could be a result of regional politics.
5. The Novosibirsk regional branch of the Federal Migration Service and the Novosibirsk regional branch of the Federal State Statistic Service provided these data in their official letters in response to my requests for information.
6. The names of all of my respondents mentioned in this article are pseudonyms.
7. Law N 99 ‘On the state policy of the Russian Federation with respect to compatriots abroad’ defines ‘compatriots’ as ‘persons who were born in one and the same state, live or have lived in it, possess features of commonality in language, religion, cultural inheritance, traditions and customs, as well as descendants of the above-mentioned persons’.
8. Law N 477-VI ‘On migration of population’ defines ‘oralman’ as an ‘ethnic Kazakh who permanently resided abroad at the time when the Republic of Kazakhstan obtained its sovereignty, and his children of Kazakh nationality, who were born and reside permanently abroad … coming to the Republic of Kazakhstan for the purpose of permanent residence in the historic homeland and settled in the regions defined by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan … ’.
9. The programme ‘On assisting the voluntary resettlement of compatriots residing abroad’ was introduced in 2006. Its text as well as related legislation can be accessed at http://гувм.мвд.рф/about/compatriots.
10. A list of international agreements between Russia and Kazakhstan is available in the database of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (bi-lateral at http://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/international_contracts/2_contract and multilateral at http://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/international_contracts/multilateral_contract).
11. Agreements concluded by Russian and Kazakhstan regions are available on the website of the Commonwealth of Independent States http://www.e-cis.info/page.php?id=22696.
12. The text of this document and the results of its implementation are available on the website of the Novosibirsk region administration https://www.nso.ru/page/2271.