Russian migration regimeanthropology of legal timelegal labour shortagemigrant workers from Kyrgyzstanqueue as social form
Figures from the paper
Abstract (AI)
The contemporary Russian migration regime is grounded in an artificial shortage of legal labour. For migrant workers from ‘visa-free’ states of the former Soviet Union, becoming and remaining documented requires mastering the queue as a distinct social and institutional form. Exploring the everyday tactics of ‘occupying the queue’ among migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan, this paper brings an existentially sensitive perspective on migration into conversation with an anthropology of legal time, attentive to the ways in which being ‘stuck in motion’ emerges through the conjunction of competing tempi of work, life, and legalisation. A focus on the queue as social form draws attention to the embodied labour of synchronisation: the physical and social effort entailed in integrating the disjunctive temporal regimes of paid work and documentary verification in contexs of legal precarity. In so doing, the article critically interrogates assumptions of ‘empty time’ in recent anthropological work on waiting.
Key Findings
1
Being 'stuck in motion' results from conflicting temporalities of work, life, and legalisation, producing embodied labour of synchronisation.
2
For visa-free migrants from former Soviet states, obtaining and maintaining documentation requires mastering the queue as a distinct social and institutional form.
3
Migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan use everyday tactics of 'occupying the queue' to navigate legalisation processes under precarity.
4
The Russian migration regime creates an artificial shortage of legal labour that shapes migrants' experiences.
5
The paper challenges anthropological assumptions of 'empty time' in studies of waiting by emphasizing active, embodied temporal labour.
6
The queue as social form highlights the physical and social effort needed to integrate disjunctive temporal regimes of paid work and documentary verification.
Research Object
The queue as a social and institutional form used by migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan in the Russian migration regime
Research Subject
Everyday tactics and embodied labour of 'occupying the queue'—synchronisation of competing temporal regimes (work, life, legalisation) and how being 'stuck in motion' and legal precarity are produced through the queue
Publication Details
Publication Date
2020-01-14
Journal
Publisher
ISSN
Open access PDF
Access Type
Author Information
Download PDF
Subscribe to digest