In this episode I talk with two researchers about the lives of migrants from Central Asia in Russia, both before, and since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is probably no surprise that this conflict is affecting migrants in Russia, and you’ll hear all about this from the guests in this episode. 
You’ll also hear a bit about the people behind the numbers, when we talk about the millions of migrants from central Asia in Russia, as well as how their lives are shaped by the formal and informal legal constraints in Russian society. Finally, we touch on some intriguing areas of research emerging as a result of the limited access to data in Russia today and that focus on new trends in Central Asian migration.
To discuss all of this, I’m joined by Rustam Urinboyev and Nodira Kholmatova.

Rustam Urinboyev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University in Sweden. His research is on socio-legal approaches to Migration, corruption and informality (among other topics.) He is also the principal investigator of the EU-funded project “MARS: Non-Western Migration Regimes in a Global Perspective”.

Nodira Kholmatova, who works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Amsterdam. She is a sociologist and migration researcher who studies social and gender inequalities in return migration and deportation regimes as well as the impact of migration policies on migrants and their families. Her geographic focus is Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and more recently Western Balkans and Southeast Asia. 
Let’s get into it!

Info for episode description:
Rushtam: https://www.soclaw.lu.se/en/rustamjon-urinboyev

1. Urinboyev, R. (2020) Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Available at: https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.96/.
2. Urinboyev, R. and Eraliev, S. (2022) The Political Economy of Non-Western Migration Regimes: Central Asian Migrant Workers in Russia and Turkey. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (International Political Economy Series). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99256-9 (Accessed: 20 May 2022).
3. Urinboyev, R. and Pallot, J. (2024) ‘Ethnic and religious identities in Russian penal institutions: A case study of Uzbek Transnational Muslim prisoners’, Open Research Europe, 3(122), pp. 1–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.16142.2.
4. Eraliev, S. and Urinboyev, R. (2024) ‘“What have you done, brother Putin?”: Everyday geopolitics and Central Asian labour migration to Russia’, Central Asian Survey, 43(2), pp. 215–234. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2023.2266519.

Nodira: https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/k/h/n.kholmatova/n.kholmatova.html 
Project webpage: https://reintegrateerc.com/nodira-kholmatova/ 
1.Kholmatova, N. (2022). Gender. Introduction: critical appraisal. In R. Isaacs (Ed.), A Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies : 40 Years of Central Asian Survey (pp. 139-143). (Central Asian Studies; Vol. 42). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200338-8
2. Kholmatova, N. (2021). The precarity of transnational migration and the COVID-19 pandemic: addressing female return migration in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. (Policy Brief of the Migration Governance and Agricultural and Rural Change (AGRUMIG) Project]. London, UK: SOAS University of London. 8p. (AGRUMIG Policy Brief Series 3)). European Union Horizon2020 work programme. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131900 
3. Kholmatova, N. (2021). Navigating contradictions : female return migration and social change in Tajikistan, Florence : European University Institute, 2021, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/72723 

Ep3(S5) Migration & Russia: Understanding the Broader Context and Impacts of the War in Ukraine

The field of migration and mobility studies is vast and has grown exponentially over the past decades. To make sense of the movement of people, this podcast explores migration and mobility research globally. Providing a platform for migration scholars to speak about their projects, ideas and insights, The IMISCOE Migration Podcast aims to publicize what happens inside universities around the world. This is a podcast by the research community for everyone interested in knowing more about academic research on migration. 

Download or subscribe to hear about new books, or listen to one of our episodes in which we speak to scholars about ideas that changed how we think about migration. 

Team for season 5:
Production: 
Kate Dearden 

Team & Programming Coordinators: 
Milena Belloni, Roos Derrix, Mark Marvin Kadigo

Financial Administration & Engagement: 
Asya Pisarevskaya

Interviews: 
Amanda Paz Alencar, Liberty Chee, Silindile Mlilo, Itzel Eguiluz, Samanwita Paul

Ep3(S5) Migration & Russia: Understanding the Broader Context and Impacts of the War in Ukraine

The Migration Podcast