Strangers within? Russian-speakers’ migration from Latvia to London: a study in power geometry and intersectionality

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to contribute to debates on ethnic identification and migration through a focus on a specific group – Russian-speakers from the Baltic state of Latvia who have migrated to the UK. Twenty-six interviews with members of this group were gathered in London and the wider metropolitan area during 2012 and 2014. Russian-speakers represent uniquely combined configurations of ‘the other within’: in most cases, they are EU citizens with full rights; yet, some still hold non-citizens’ passports of Latvia. While in Latvian politics Russian-speakers are framed as ‘others’ whose identities are shaped by the influence of Russia, interview findings confirm that they do not display belonging to contemporary Russia. However, London is the ‘third space’ – a multicultural European metropolis – which provides new opportunities for negotiating ethnic identification. Against the background of triple ‘alienation’ (from Latvia, from Russia and from the UK), we analyse how ethnicity is narrated intersectionally with other categories such as age and class. The findings show that Russian-speaking migrants from Latvia mobilise their Europeanness and Russianness beyond alienating notions of (ethno)national identity. The paper also demonstrates that being open to ethnicity as a category of practice helps us towards a progressive conceptualisation of often overlooked dimensions of integration of intra-EU linguistic ‘others’.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• power geometry
• intra-EU mobility
• Russian-speakers
• Latvia
• London

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In a recent study on neighbourhood preferences in the Estonian town of Tartu, Leetmaa, Tammaru, and Hess (2015) analysed data from the 1990s up to the end of 2000s. They found that socio-economic inequalities, and not ethnic intolerance, are the most crucial factor, while ethnic segregation continues to exist in the town. These findings in a neighbouring Baltic country strengthen our claim to place ethnicity into a broader complexity of intersections also after migration to London.

2. National Centre for Education of Republic of Latvia, see http://visc.gov.lv/valval/limeni.shtml Three levels A–C with two stages in each level.

3. Latvia experienced sudden and deep economic and financial crisis in 2009–2011, and was forced to ask a loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission to maintain the state budgetary functions.

4. Also, back in Latvia, as Juzefovics (2013, 188) has demonstrated in media studies, ethno-division lines are more politically heated than real. Even though news media preferences do divide people in Latvia along linguistic lines, there is no evidence of two separate information spaces and a ‘threat’ to national integration. Russian-speakers are interested in news, especially socio-economic developments, to the same extent as Latvian-speakers are.

Additional information

Funding

Lulle received support from the State Research Programme EKOSOC-LV, project No.5.2.4. ‘Renewal of society through reducing the risk of depopulation, through demographic development and strengthening links with the diaspora for the transformation of the Latvian economy.’ Jurkane-Hobein carried out the fieldwork during the project ‘The emigrant communities of Latvia: National identity, transnational relations, and diaspora politics.’ No. 2013/0055/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/13/APIA/VIAA/040, financed by the European Social Fund and carried out by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia.