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Migration, Displacement and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia, by Hilary Pilkington. London & New York: Routledge, 1998. 252 pp. NPL cloth. ISBN: 0-415-15824-9. NPL paper. ISBN: 0-41515825-7.
Hilary Pilkington takes up the question of why Russians are migrating to Russia from the former Soviet republics, and how their experiences affect the formation of national identity. Focusing on the economic and cultural barriers that inhibit Russian migrants' integration, she finds that migration spurs diverse understandings of Russian national identity. On the basis of extensive fieldwork, Pilkington also shows that migrants' lived experience challenges the distinction between voluntary and involuntary migration.
The book is clearly written and organized. The chapters in Part 1 lucidly detail a complex series of laws and institutions regulating migration policy and services. Pilkington sets out the theoretical issues about the motivations for migration, and, using an insightful content analysis, explores the politically charged language on migration used by the Russian press. She describes the "non-uniform" implementation of Russian migration legislation, and describes the challenges faced by governmental, nongovernmental, and international institutions that formulate and...