ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to migration studies by focusing on legal issues and deportation regimes as well as the experiences shaped by the deportability and detainability of migrants in Russia, in keeping with the work of De Genova and Peutz (2010) and De Genova (2019). The questions we consider here are as follows: How is deportability legally produced and operationalised? What legal and illegal means are used to render migrants deportable? And, what does being deportable mean for the daily survival of migrants in Russia?
We argue that the result of not having a clear regulatory basis for making decisions about deportation as well as for legally violating laws during the deportation process result in chaos within the management of migration and mobility. We also argue that these gaps and contradictions within the legal system serve as both means and opportunities for Russian officials to illegally expel unwanted migrants from Russia. Namely, these gaps and contradictions result in the use and abuse of deportation as a weapon or punishment, in accordance with findings from Walters (2018) and Navasky (1959). The overall analysis of the practice of deportation and violating the human rights of migrant-victims indicates and supports the findings of De Genova (2010), whereby deportability and detainability are produced and experienced.
