Changes in the Securitization of Migration in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2025.6.2926Keywords:
armed conflict, performative discourses, securitization practices, securitization of migration, people with a migration backgroundAbstract
In the last three years, the process of securitization of migration, which began in Russia in the second half of the 1990s, has significantly accelerated. The positioning of migration as a security problem has acquired new shades and meanings. Whereas previously migrants were suspected of an increased propensity to commit crimes of general criminal and terrorist orientation, after the outbreak of the armed conflict with Ukraine, suspicions of political unreliability were added. The thesis that migrants constitute a “fifth column” began to be heard in public discourse. At the same time, for the first time in Russia’s modern history, foreign citizens and, especially, persons with a migration background began to be seen as a significant resource for replenishing the army. The latter led to a significant liberalization of migration legislation regarding foreigners contracted by the Russian Ministry of Defense, especially noticeable against the background of a rapid tightening of the rules of the game for migrants of other categories and “new citizens”. This article is devoted to analyzing these transformations. The paper uses a new methodological approach developed based on the synthesis of the Copenhagen and Paris schools of securitization theory using P. Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power, which allows us to study securitizing discourses and practices in their organic relationship. Based on the study of first-order performatives (legal acts), as well as discourses and practices associated with their creation, promotion, and execution, new, previously unexplored directions of migration securitization in Russia are analyzed.
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