ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War was a ‘watershed event’ in the history of global migration, ending political constraints that had kept migration levels low until 1990 and increasing global economic integration. Movement of both documented and undocumented migrants has been on the rise worldwide, and Russia has become a major receiving state, drawing the second largest labour migrant population in the world after the United States. Over the past two decades more than six million have migrated to Russia legally and illegally, most to work in Moscow and other major cities. While these labour migrants come from many countries the single largest group arrives from Central Asian states, with Tajikistan a major contributor. Approximately 10 per cent of Tajikistan’s population of 7–8 million – more than 30 per cent of working-age men and a smaller number of women – totalling an estimated 1.3 million people, reportedly lived and worked in Russia during 2012–13. From 2000, Russia’s economy has depended on them for unskilled and semi-skilled work in construction and services. For its part Tajikistan has relied on migrants’ remittances for one-third to one-half of its GDP, making it one of the most remittance-dependent states in the world. In sum, migration has become an institutionalised part of the political economies of both Russia’s highly stratified ‘global cities’ and the Eurasian periphery. Russia’s 2008–9 recession and especially the current economic downturn have greatly decreased demand for migrants’ labour, leading to return of many to Tajikistan and a resulting decline in remittances (Abdurazakova 2011: 5; Buckley 2008; Heleniak 2008; Ganguli 2009; Hertzer 2009; Migranty 2007; Trudovaia 2010; Yudina 2005).
