Labour, Mobility and Informal Practices in Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe

Power, Institutions and Mobile Actors in Transnational Space

Published May 27, 2021 by Routledge.

ISBN:
978-1-032-01014-4
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This book explores the daily survival strategies of people within the context of failed states, flourishing informal economies, legal uncertainty, increased mobility, and globalization, where many people, who are forced by the circumstances to be innovative and transnational, have found their niches outside formal processes and structures. The book provides a thorough theoretical introduction to the link between labour mobility and informality and comprises convincing case studies from a wide range of post-socialist countries. Overall, it highlights the importance of trust, transnational networks, and digital technologies in settings where the rules governing economic and social activities of mobile workers are often unclear and flexible.

2 editions

A Good But Uneven Volume

This is a eclectic mix of academic essays on a variety of topics, with the most compelling ones focusing on aspects of informal migrant labor in a region that receives little attention in the English literature. I especially liked the chapters on Central Asian labor migrants in Russia (John Round and Irina Kuznetsova), taxi drivers in Tashkent (Nikolaos Olma), infrastructure of posting (Alexandra Voivozeanu), and Uzbek migrant workers in Russia (Urinboyev). It should also be noted that one of the authors of the painful chapter on Russian deportation regimes (Turaeva and Izzat Amon) is currently in prison, demonstrating the peril of this important research.

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