Looking for Compatriots: Repatriation Politics in Russia and Beyond
With a new draft law on “repatriation into the Russian Federation”, Russia intends to make it easier for compatriots abroad to become Russian citizens. According to the draft law, it will be possible for “peoples and their descendants who have historically lived on Russian territory” to obtain a Russian passport. But what exactly is meant by that? Who is deemed a compatriot within this framework? Together with Tsypylma Darieva and Tatiana Zhurzhenko, we look at Russia’s repatriation politics since the collapse of the USSR and discuss the concept and the broader aims of repatriation politics.
With repatriation laws, nation states give former citizens or members of ethnic diaspora the right to return or try to maintain ties to those communities abroad. Famous examples are Israel’s Law of Return or Germany’s Vertriebenen- and Aussiedlergesetz. After the dissolution of the USSR, repatriation also became an issue for Russia and other post-Soviet nation states.
(Music: “Complete” by Modul is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0-License.)
Participants
- Tatiana Zhurzhenko (ZOiS)
- Tsypylma Darieva (ZOiS)
- Host: Stefanie Orphal (ZOiS)
Roundtable Osteuropa
Der Roundtable Osteuropa ist ein Podcast des ZOiS. Hier diskutieren Wissenschaftler*innen des ZOiS und Gäste über ihre Forschung zu Osteuropa. Dabei gehen wir auf aktuelle Ereignisse in Politik und Gesellschaft ein, versuchen aber auch, unbekanntere Themen zu beleuchten – mit Einblicken aus Soziologie, Politikwissenschaften, Geografie, Sozialanthropologie, Literaturwissenschaften und Theologie.