Publication

This paper provides a portrait of the Russian diaspora in Central Asia and discusses such issues as national identity, economic migration, political cooperation and language policy. The author states that the massive migratory flows of Central Asians seeking work in Russia have forced local governments to maintain legal, linguistic, cultural, educational and informational links with the old imperial center in Moscow. The paper details how the Russians of Central Asia thus find themselves in a paradoxical position, namely a locally discriminated minority seeking to profit from a revised rapprochement with Russia in which they are neither principal actors nor principal beneficiaries.