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by Olga R. Gulina (Author), Nils Muiznieks (Foreword by)
Over the last three decades, migration management in the newly independent states which emerged from the ruins of the USSR in 1991 has become a tool for staking out zones of influence, a winning slogan for election campaigns, and a handle on the domestic population. Such an instrumentalization of migration is widespread in all post-Soviet republics. (Geo-)political games around migration issues are also a mechanism of foreign influence and a method of destabilization across the former USSR as well as an apology for slowing down reforms and even for transforming their character or vector.
The ruling elites of the newly independent states exploit, with different degrees of intensity and success, institutions and rules of migration laws, including the granting of citizenship, asylum, temporary and permanent residence authorization, etc., in order to advance certain foreign and domestic policies. The directions of various post-Soviet nations' migration policies--be they pro-European, pro-Asian, or pro-Russian--are informed less by a pursuit of cultural, historical, or economic advantages for the respective countries and their populations than by the dynamics of geopolitical rivalry and often by the principle "either an ally or a rival; there is no middle ground." This fascinating volume explains why shifts in migration management in the post-Soviet countries are both causes for and consequences of political changes that influence foreign and domestic policy making.Author Biography
Olga R. Gulina is acting director and founder of RUSMPI, the Institute on Migration Policy in Berlin. She studied constitutional and migration law in Russia, Germany, and France as well as at the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and European Academy of Diplomacy in Poland. Gulina held fellowships from the German Chancellor Program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and from the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. She is author of several books and papers.
Nils Muiznieks was the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights in 2012-2018, Chairman of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance in 2010-2012, and Latvian Minister for Social Integration, Anti-Discrimination, Minority Rights, and Civil Society Development in 2002-2004.
