Propiska regime regulating mobility and migration in post-Soviet cities

Abstract

The paper sheds light on the composition of the institution of propiska regime in post-Soviet urban space as part of the post-Soviet policies of mobility control and migration restrictions. Based on the case studies of internal and international migration, comparing internal migrants in post-Soviet capital cities (Central Asia) and international migrants within post-Soviet space (migrants in Moscow), the paper highlights the implications of the propiska regime.Mobility within the boundaries of former Soviet Union as well as within the national boundaries of the most post-Soviet republics is complicated by the propiska regime. Registration entitles a holder of propiska to social welfare and other benefits, its absence throws a person out of the realm of state provisions, and welfare support, in other words this person becomes illegal. This can happen not only to international migrants for example in Moscow but also to internal migrants in Russia or in Central Asia.Furthermore, the paper highlights implications of propiska regime for state and society relations in two different contexts illegal residents (without propiska) within their own country and illegal migrants outside their country within the post-Soviet region. The propiska regime is constituted not only by the registration procedures comprising its legal provisions and the administrative tools necessary to install it, but rather by a wider taxonomy and complex institutional setting. This complex is a mixture of legal, illegal, formal and informal rules, practices of police, border security, administrative employees, propiska makers issuing fake propiskas, propiska brokers, clients, discourses and other practices.