ABSTRACT
This article recounts legally and ethnographically how states’ policies and frameworks give way to legislative and institutional approaches concerning ethnic clusters of newly independent states living beyond their borders. It tells a story about the strategies used by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine to deal with people who find themselves between different identities. This story remains vague and unpredictable, dependent on state interests and priorities rather than on the needs of the individuals who left their country of origin. After the dissolution of the USSR, only a few newly independent states have increased their efforts in developing various policies to engage their migrant and diaspora communities abroad. Since the 2000s, diaspora engagement policies have become a prominent component of migration policies in Eurasia. Many countries set a legislative framework for diaspora engagement and involvement, established diverse institutions and mechanisms to provide support to their migrant communities abroad, and continued to maintain strong ties with them. This chapter aims at evaluating some good practices and lessons learned from the country case studies chosen in order to provide examples of diverse discourses and approaches to diaspora participation and engagement beyond the newly independent states’ borders.
