RAI Research Seminar
Tuesday 8 December 2026, 4.00-6.00pm (GMT)
This is a hybrid event.
To join us in person, at the RAI, please register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rai-research-seminar-elena-borisova-tickets-2004031644596
To join us online on Zoom, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__TtypSVFQG2h3odg7HQxhw#/registration
Locating the good life between Tajikistan and Russia
Dr Elena Borisova, School of Global Studies, Dep of Anthropology, University of Sussex
Today, Tajikistan is one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people travelling to Russia in search of livelihoods every year. But what happens when the pursuit of a good life pulls people in different directions? Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan moves beyond economistic push-pull narratives of post-Soviet migration to foreground the experiences of those who ‘stay put’ and struggle to reproduce their moral communities. It examines how mobility becomes entwined with historically and culturally situated ideas of the good life and with people’s efforts to become good, moral and modern subjects.
By attending to the complex interplay between the economic, imaginative and moral dimensions of (im)mobility, it argues that mass migration from Tajikistan is as much a project of navigating ethical personhood as a quest for economic resources. In this talk, I show how these tensions play out in the intimate spheres of care, masculinity, family relationships and the body.
Dr Borisova’s book is published by UCL Press and available here, also as open access:
https://uclpress.co.uk/book/paradoxes-of-migration-in-tajikistan/