Andrey V. Rezaev

Comparative Analysis of Transnational Labor Migrants Everyday Life Practices in

Athens, Greece and St. Petersburg, Russia in 2009-2012

41st IIS World Congress,

Uppsala, June 10, 2013

ANO: InterComCenter. Russian Humanitarian Scholarly Foundation (RGNF) 10-03-00911а/Г.

The co-Project with Greek Foundation CARI

Rationale, Objectives and Goals

• This is a multi/inter/cross-disciplinary project oriented towards dynamic use of comparative methodology in sociological studies and policy analysis, and, second, the use of the most recent contributions in contemporary migration studies in Russia and Greece.

• The Project seeks to promote theoretically grounded empirical research in transnational migration.

Research objectives and goals

Comparative analysis of the everyday life practices of legal transnational labor migrants in

Athens and St. Petersburg in 2009-2012

Survey procedure

Time: 2009-2012

Research methods: observation, group discussions, semi-structured interview, in-depth interview, case-study

Sample: observation - 10 persons in Athens and 10 persons in St. Petersburg Group Discussion: 118 migrants in St. Petersburg, 93 migrants in Athens Participant observation (2010 – Greece; 2011-2012 St. Petersburg) Semi-structured interviews - 10 persons in each city

Stages of the study:- 2009 desk research and a pilot project in St. Petersburg- 2010 networking, observation- 2011 scaling, studying value orientations of migrants- 2012 Case-studies

The number of migrants in Greece and Russia

  Greece Russian Federation

Population, in thousands ~ 10 800 ~ 145 200

Migrants, in thousands ~ 1 200 ~ 12 000

Number of migrants to 1000 citizens 111 82

• Migrants in Russia - 12 million people• Migrants in Greece - 1.2 million people

Research questions

• The basic research questions of the Project:

• what are the similarities and differences in everyday life practices of transnational labor migrants in Athens and in St Petersburg during the years of financial and economic crisis 2009 -2012?

• Can everyday life practices be considered as a barometer for participation of migrants in social protests activities?

Paradigmatic turn in social analytics1. A number of recent and influential works of sociology deal with the

seemingly trivial phenomena of everyday life. The standard mass surveys are being replaced by in-depth, interpretative, and qualitative procedures that focus on the visual surface of society.

2. We observe a shift in sociological method from the quantitative mass surveys that for many decades dominated sociological research toward more qualitative approaches: observation, case studies, in-depth interviews, the interpretation of ‘ego documents’, i.e. spontaneously created personal records of experience (letters, lifestories, family photographs), and the analysis of the social iconosphere as a particularly interesting novelty.

3. The ‘third sociology’ takes as its ultimate object of inquiry social events: human action in collective contexts, constrained on the one hand by the agential endowment of participants and on the other hand by structural and cultural environments of action. (Piotr Sztompka, ISA Presidential address)

Theory, Methodology and Empirical Analysis

• The theoretical and methodological part of the Project sets out to discuss more general issues regarding definitions of the major concepts such as “migrants”, “transnational migrants”, “affirmative action”, “social inclusion and exclusion” and so on, discussion of Post-communist migration flows, incentives, trends, and categories as well as migrants’membership and sense of belonging. In order to be able to carry out this task, I considered how the postcommunist period of Russia provides a fruitful terrain for the study of migration by challenging well-established paths in this area, and bringing forth – among others – a category of migrants hardly explored so far: students.

Theory, Methodology and Empirical Analysis

Part of the empirical analysis relies on data collected in St. Petersburg in July 2011 - February 2012 by means of ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, and “informal discussions” (Roger Brubaker classifies informal discussion as “variant of the focus group” yet given the more informal and interactive nature of the setting and conversation usually engaging friends or acquaintances, the author puts it separately. See, in Rogers Brubaker et al, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town Princeton University Press, 2006.) with migrants from Vietnam. In total there were conducted twelve in-depth interviews and six discussions.

Theory, Methodology and Empirical Analysis

The interview questions revolved around the following topics: reasons for migration and experience abroad; first impressions in St. Petersburg and Anthens; encounters with neighbors, friends, colleagues, and strangers; academic life; jobs and opportunities; administration and public offices; future perspectives; perceptions about host and home countries; and leisure time and holidays. The discussions covered similar areas, with sustained interaction between the participants, who knew each other very well, some being roommates who voluntarily offered to participate. In general, the atmosphere in both interviews and discussions was rather casual and informal. A limitation of this study is provided by the sample itself, the absence of experts’ interview and shortcomings of comparative methods. The Project is an attempt to overcome these and other limitations as well as an attempt to prepare and to conduct a more detailed field research in the future

Theory, Methodology and Empirical Analysis

In the preparatory phase of the Project three working hypotheses were formulated. However, the questions for the focus groups and the semi-structured interviews were developed in a way which gives room for the incorporation of unanticipated issues and topics that might arise during the interviews.

Debate on Comparative Analysis in the Social Sciences I

Classic approaches to comparative sociology

- The logic of comparison developed by John Stuart Mill

- The Verstehende comparative practice of Max Weber.

- Emil Durkheim: “Comparative sociology is not a particular branch of sociology; it is sociology itself, in so far as it ceases to be purely descriptive and aspires to account for facts”

Debate on Comparative Analysis in the Social Sciences II

Very general and concise definition of the comparative analysis for this study

“Comparative socio-analysis encompasses a broad range of practices that focus on the juxtaposition of cases or aspects of cases to one another, and the use of either inductive or deductive logic in relation to those juxtapositions, either to test theoretically derived hypotheses or to produce bounded generalizations and "rules of experience."”( John R. Hall)

Opposing views: What is a “Migrant”?

According to Thomas Faist, “person who moves from one country to another with the intention of taking up residence there for a relevant period of time. All those are migrants who reside and stay abroad for more than three months, be they primary migrants – those migrating for the first time - return migrants, or circular and recurrent migrants.”

Thomas Faist, The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces, Oxford: Claredon Press, 2000, p. 18.

Thomas Faist

Opposing Views: What is a “Migrant”?

According to the UNESCO Migration Glossary

The term migrant can be understood as "any person who lives temporarily or permanently in a country where he or she was not born, and has acquired some significant social ties to this country." However, this may be a too narrow definition when considering that, according to some states' policies, a person can be considered as a migrant even when s/he is born in the country.

http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3020&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Commission on Human Rights Definition

“The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights has proposed that the following persons should be considered as migrants:

(a) Persons who are outside the territory of the State of which their are nationals or citizens, are not subject to its legal protection and are in the territory of another State;

(b) Persons who do not enjoy the general legal recognition of rights which is inherent in the granting by the host State of the status of refugee, naturalised person or of similar status;

(c) Persons who do not enjoy either general legal protection of their fundamental rights by virtue of diplomatic agreements, visas or other agreements”. ( See, Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human rights in A/57/292, Human rights of migrants, Note by the Secretary-General. 9August 2002 at http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3020&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)

Opposing Views: What is a “Migrant”?

• “The US Bureau of the Census collects data on the number of persons who change their usual residence during a 12-month period. If the change is within the same county, the person is a mover, if to another country, the person is a migrant.”

The United States Government

Migration. The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition. 1994 ed.

So, what is a “Migrant”? For the purposes of our study, a

“migrant shall be defined as, “One who moves from one place, to another, for a period of time greater than one year.”

What is a “Transnational Migrant”?

“The movement of a person, or people, from one nation, to another, for duration of time, lasting at least one year.”

Social Exclusion Social exclusion as a socio-economic

and political problem came to light recently with the events in dense immigrant housing quarters in Paris, France. In spring 2005 immigrant families from the suburbs or banlieues at the periphery of the greater Paris started to demonstrate their demand for a solution to their exclusion from society through weeks of rioting.

Defining “Social Exclusion”

“…literature has noted that there is no clarity on exactly what defines social exclusion, but it’s range can include poverty, lack of social integration, economic exclusion, political exclusion, and cultural exclusion…”

Madanipour, Cars, & Allen, 1998, pp. 76-78; Mayes, Berghman, & Salais, 2001; Percy-Smith, 2000, pp. 3-5).

Defining “Social Exclusion” II

“Mandanipour et al. trace the use of the term “social exclusion” to French social policy and Percy-Smith explains that originally it referred to a “group of people living on the margins of society and, in particular, without access to the system of social insurance” (Madanipour, Cars, & Allen, 1998; Percy-Smith, 2000). “

“The editors of Social Exclusion in European Cities observe that social exclusion is a growing trend across Europe in the areas of employment, income, education and health. In particular, they note that: “In many cities, these changes are especially visible in the spatial concentration of immigrant and ethnic minority communities and in large areas with deteriorating environmental conditions” t

Ibid.

Defining “Social Exclusion” IIIAli Madanipour has cautioned that the

“combination of multiple forms of exclusion becomes a spatial reinforcement of exclusion, pushing those individuals to the spatial edge of society. At that point Madanipour says the exclusion can become a conflict between ‘the system and actors’ and continues: ‘In such dissociation, the marginalized people and marginalized places undermine the legitimacy and authority of these systems and threaten to block the route to survival. Tackling the problems of social exclusion becomes ever more crucial, as these areas become scenes of riots and social unrest’”

Ibid.

Defining “Social Exclusion” IV

Researcher David Mayes has defined social exclusion as “a “process” and as a “state” (Mayes, Berghman, & Salais, 2001, p. 6). These two aspects of social exclusion have a direct influence on policy response. As a “process,” Mayes notes that once social exclusion is evident in the life of an individual, it becomes a “vicious cycle” from which exit is difficult or impossible. “

Ibid.

Defining “Social Exclusion” V

After all of this, Mayes’ simply concludes that it is, “more efficient and effective to prevent entry into this cycle than to combat the effects of social exclusion and try to exit the cycle. Thus it is Mayes’ prescriptive suggestion that policy measures to encourage social inclusion address the issue of exclusion more accurately and efficiently than a “prevention” policy strategy against exclusion, which Mayes describes as a “generic” approach to the issue.”

Ibid.

Defining “Social Exclusion” VI

Mayes’ view is that, “social exclusion is a broad term that allows member states to tailor it to fit their needs, which he sees as a pro and a con. His criticism is that “It does not impose a particular social model on the members…however that very vagueness would enable states to do very little that was new” (Mayes, Berghman, & Salais, 2001, p. 4).”

Ibid.

Migrants’ location in St.Petersburg

Migrants’ location in Athens

Preliminary Conclusions ITransnational Labor Migrants

Everyday Life Practices both in St. Petersburg and Athens potentially can be called as a means of a social EXCLUSION.

Preliminary Conclusions IIAlthough forms of these ‘elitist

exclusion’ by the means of everyday life practices exist today both in St. Petersburg and Athens the requirements and aspirations of a modern society urge that practices that labor migrants experience everyday should be transformed into means of SOCIAL INCLUSION.

Preliminary Conclusions IIITaking into account that everyday

life practices have a possibility for a twisted/double role in the process of social exclusion and social inclusion, policy makers should have special attention with regards to potential of labor migrants, youngsters and adults, to take part in protest movements .

Preliminary Conclusions IV: New LanguageScholars and policy makers are in

need to develop new language for understanding what is ‘transnational migrants’ in the time of globalization that foster both internationalization of education and regionalization of education. (According to Bologna Process documents, a student has to study at least on semester in another university)

Preliminary Conclusions V: St Petersburg

There is lack of political will and real specialists who suppose to formulate politics and policies for transnational labor migrants. The policies in St. Petersburg are dominated by economic rationalism and instrumentalism. Thus, those of us who believe that quality of nowadays urban life are not only necessary to promote but also require constant actions must be willing to engage in the difficult task of crafting laws and procedures (new institutions).