Constructing a Refugee Through Producing a Refugee Space: Russian Migrants in Occupied Istanbul (1919–22)

Abstract

Migration is a natural tendency of human society. Solidification of the modern nation-state led to the regularized protection of states’ borders and territory and reduced the ability of migrants to negotiate their integration into a host society. The political and economic turmoil of the era following the First World War exacerbated the problematic relationships between the nation-state and migrants. Many migrants were excluded from the normal territorial and legal space of post-war global society and were categorized under a new political label as refugees. With the example of Russian Civil War (1918-21) refugees in Istanbul, the article investigates the process of constructing a refugee identity among these people. This included producing a refugee space, which was accomplished through imagining space as a resource, reimagining the meaning of Istanbul, constructing refugee camps, and engagement with the experience of the spatial hierarchy of Istanbul city life. I argue that the experience of Russian refugees in Istanbul after the First World War heavily contributed to the formation of today’s modern refugee regime.