Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan: Locating the Good Life

This talk is based on the recently published book Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan: Locating the Good Life, by Elena Borisova. The book explores what migration is and what it does in rural Tajikistan—one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world. In examining this dependency, Elena moves beyond economistic push-pull narratives about post-Soviet migration and foregrounds the experiences of those who ‘stay put’ and reproduce their moral communities. By addressing the complex relationship between the economic, imaginative, and moral aspects of (im)mobility, she demonstrates that mass migration from Tajikistan is as much a project of navigating ethical personhood as it is a quest for economic resources. This talk will focus on the interplay between (im)mobility, care, and masculinity. The author will show that migrants’ attempts to bridge the disjuncture between care as material provision and care as an affective performance of respect—rooted in presence—can keep men ‘stuck’ in a loop of constant movement between Russia and Tajikistan. This form of mobility, which is associated with constrained agency and lack of choice, places a profound strain on their bodies, sense of self, and relationships with their immediate families.

About the author

Elena Borisova is a social anthropologist working on migration, (im)mobility, and citizenship in Eurasia. She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. She conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Currently, she is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow based at the Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex, working on wartime mobilities of Russians to Central Asia.

Lunch will be served to all participants.