Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. PA Reform Author(s) Rustamjon Urinboyev Lund University Lund Sweden Title Migration Governance and Shadow Economy in Russia File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Rustamjon Urinboyev Abstract I am currently working on a book project on migrant illegality and informal integration strategies in Russia (contract signed with the University of California Press). I probe into the ways the migrants maneuver their life in the Russian legal system and among the police, immigration officials and border guards, and how they employ informal order-producing structures. During the NISPAcee PA Reform session, I would like to present one of the chapters of my book that deals with the interconnections of migration governance, shadow economy and immigrant legal integration. My paper presentation consists of two parts. The first section discusses the role and functions of the three Russian state actors, namely police officers, migration police and border guards with regard to the immigration control laws and policies. The purpose is to examine how these three state actors regulate and enforce immigration and labour laws. The second section presents the results of observations, informal interviews and focus group interviews with migrant workers where the emphasis is placed on migrants’ daily interactions with police officers, migration service officials and border guards under the conditions of a shadow economy. I argue that Russian policies of immigration control have further pushed migrants into the shadow economy rather than reducing the incentives for informal employment. This is due to the vested interests of relevant Russian state actors (e.g. police, immigration officials, border guards), where each of these actors view shadow economy as a source of ‘kormushka‘ (feeding-trough) and try to ‘take their own piece‘ from it. These patterns can be gleaned by attending to migrant workers’ everyday experiences, tactics and coping strategies when they try to negotiate the ‘rules of the game’ with Russian migration officials, police officers and border guards. Although the processes and strategies mentioned above may seem as manifestation of corruption and unrule of law, they actually constitute a real mode of migration governance and thereby reveal the broader socio-legal context in which migrants’ socio-legal integration takes place.
