Tiina Sotkasiira – författare

The collapse of the Soviet Union has had profound and long-lasting impacts on the societies of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia, impacts which are not yet fully worked through: changes in state-society relations, a comprehensive reconfiguration of political, economic and social ties, the resurgence of regional conflicts "frozen" during the Soviet period, and new migration patterns both towards Russia and the European Union. At the same time the EU has emerged as an important player in the region, formulating its European Neighbourhood Policy, and engaging neighbouring states in a process of cross-border regional co-operation. This book explores a wide range of complex and contested questions related to borders, security and migration in the emerging "European Neighbourhood" which includes countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia as well as the countries which immediately border the EU. Issues discussed include new forms of regional and cross-border co-operation, new patterns of migration, and the potential role of the EU as a stabilizing external force. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has had profound and long-lasting impacts on the societies of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia, impacts which are not yet fully worked through: changes in state-society relations, a comprehensive reconfiguration of political, economic and social ties, the resurgence of regional conflicts "frozen" during the Soviet period, and new migration patterns both towards Russia and the European Union. At the same time the EU has emerged as an important player in the region, formulating its European Neighbourhood Policy, and engaging neighbouring states in a process of cross-border regional co-operation. This book explores a wide range of complex and contested questions related to borders, security and migration in the emerging "European Neighbourhood" which includes countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia as well as the countries which immediately border the EU. Issues discussed include new forms of regional and cross-border co-operation, new patterns of migration, and the potential role of the EU as a stabilizing external force. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

While moving across borders has been made easier for some in Russia in recent years, for others, physical as well as socio-cultural borders are proving to be more and more difficult to cross. Tackling the differences between the ways in which official discourses construct borders and the ways people who live there experience them in their everyday lives, this book uses innovative theoretical approaches and empirical work with young North Caucasian migrants to explore issues of identity, citizenship, exclusion and belonging. The Chechen war, terrorist attacks and confrontations between Caucasian migrants and local residents have served as touchstones for intense public debates about who belongs in Russian society and who does not. Young people of North Caucasian origin are experiencing the effects of such debates as they learn to negotiate and maintain their identities in an environment in which they are defined as a threat to national security whilst simultaneously being pressured to align with core civic values of the state. This book reflects on the notion that the cultural borders, which define civic liberties and people’s right to belong, are increasingly being defined within society, and not by the external borders of states.