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rfmcdonaldBoris Kagarlitsky's review ("Sharp Elbows") of Helen Kopnina's TSO Online Bookshop - ImmigrationEast to West Migration: Russian Migrants in Western Europe (Ashgate 2005) makes me wish that I had access to an academic library. As described by Kagarlitsky, her conclusion about the new immigrant communities in England and the Netherlands is that there are no such communities.
Kagarlitsky goes on to argue that this lack of solidairty can be explained by looking to the fragmentation wreaked upon Eurasian societies by Soviet totalitarianism, which greatly hindered the organization of communities outside of the framework of the Soviet state. Many of the immigrants studied by Kopnina succeeded, but they apparently didn't share their strategies with others. Kagarlitsky's summary makes me suspect whether national differences might not also play a role--apparently Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakhstani immigrants are quickly assimilated to the label "Russian," but there's always the question of the relationship of the signified to the signifier. I want this book.
The immigrants whose lives Kopnina examined have nothing much to do with politics, however. They left for England or Holland looking for work. Some of them hoped to start a professional career, others wanted to see the world and acquire new experiences unavailable in Soviet or post-Soviet society. Some readers might be surprised to discover that the concept of "community" is not appropriate to describe "the Russians." They are divided into numerous, scarcely communicating groups. Their members belong to different social strata and have different political views. More than that, they have no common cultural life and no centers where they might meet and feel themselves as together. "During my field work, I discovered that the concept of ‘subcommunities’ describes Russian migrants’ circumstances more accurately than that of ‘community,’" Kopnina writes.
In the course of her research, Kopnina discovered several subcommunities, including artistic and professional ones, both "closed" and "open" (to locals and each other). These subcommunities are hardly in contact with one another, or are often in conflict. Among the Russian emigrants in London one can meet the oligarch Boris Berezovsky as well as half-starving dishwashers. These migrants can hardly manage to feel kinship. A common culture and language are of no help in this regard.
Kagarlitsky goes on to argue that this lack of solidairty can be explained by looking to the fragmentation wreaked upon Eurasian societies by Soviet totalitarianism, which greatly hindered the organization of communities outside of the framework of the Soviet state. Many of the immigrants studied by Kopnina succeeded, but they apparently didn't share their strategies with others. Kagarlitsky's summary makes me suspect whether national differences might not also play a role--apparently Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakhstani immigrants are quickly assimilated to the label "Russian," but there's always the question of the relationship of the signified to the signifier. I want this book.
