Capitalising Precarity: Wellbeing of Migrants in Russia

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the concept of capitalising precarity to analyse the situation of precarious migration in migrant unfriendly contexts such as Russia. The material analysed in this paper concerns welfare and health inequalities in Russia. Welfare of labour migrants in Russia (both for internal Russian migrants and for foreign migrants) is de facto non-existent and largely self-organised by migrants themselves. State migration policies of Russia as well as welfare policies in the destination countries (Central Asia) are formulated in papers but in practice do not function to ensure some kind of wellbeing and social protection. Working conditions both at home (in Central Asia) and in destination countries (Russia and Kazakhstan) do not comply with average requirements of wellbeing of workers. I was shocked but not surprised to see Central Asian migrant workers in winter cleaning the roofs of Russian houses without any protection. The paper analyses the situation of intermixing of legal and informal practices which have a direct implication for wellbeing of migrants in Russia. The working conditions in Russia for both migrant and non-migrant labour violate basic principles of human rights. The paper also shows that even citizenship does not automatically provide direct access to social welfare where the latter is bound to the permanent registration (propiska). Continuous precarity is capital for other actors such as those who can profit from it such as police officers or other migrants themselves. The findings of this research contribute to the broader literature of labour and welfare in terms challenging the boundaries between citizenship and mobility.