The Political Economy of Non-Western Migration Regimes: Central Asian Migrant Workers in Russia and Turkey

This book examines migrant agency, undocumentedness, and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes, focusing on Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey. It challenges dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies and offers a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying migrants' experiences and migration governance processes.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 28 April 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This open-access book offers fresh theoretical and comparative perspectives on migrant agency, illegal status, and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes. It serves as a critical examination of contemporary migration regime scholarship, encompassing comparative migration studies primarily focused on the experiences and immigration policies of migrants in liberal democracies in North America and Western Europe. Recognizing the significant presence of non-democratic migration regimes, particularly in emerging migration hubs, this book aims to bridge the gap in analysis by proposing new frameworks that transcend the dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies.

The book delves into the case study of Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey, two archetypal non-Western, non-democratic regimes and global migration hotspots. By examining the informal power structures and extralegal processes within physical and digital landscapes where migrant workers, employers, middlemen, landlords, street-level actors, and street-level bureaucrats negotiate the contemporary migration system, the book sheds light on how migration governance outcomes are shaped.

Through a lively ethnography, this book presents a wealth of new empirical material, offering a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying the experiences of migrants and migration governance processes in non-Western migration regimes. It contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics and challenges faced by migrants in these contexts and provides valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners working in the field of migration studies.

Weight: 397g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030992552
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022