Futures of Individualization in Cross-Border Migration: Patterns of the Post- Soviet Migration

The post-Soviet space is marked by migration flows crossing the newly established borders between former Soviet republics and moving to other directions as well. The migration is no more motivated and organized by state agencies as this was typical in the Soviet Union. Currently the migration flows consist of individuals who autonomously use and abuse the new structural openings in economy, politics and culture and do this in increasingly sophisticated ways. The process is a typical example of spreading the global structural and action patterns of individualization. What are its major structural determinants? What are the typical patterns of individual orientation, decision and action bringing about the migration flows? What are their impacts on the societies of origin and on the host societies? What are the prospects for changing motivation, strategies and effects of the post-Soviet cross-border mass migration? Answers are searched for by using data from field studies carried out in Armenia, Georgia and Moscow. The findings reveal strengthening of the institutional coverage of market niches as well as more intensive and efficient regulation of migration processes of by states. On the other side, the growing experience of cross-border migration and the stabilization of the local institutions have substantially improved the conditions for competent autonomous orientation, decision and action of migrants. The identified changes of the structural and action parameters of mass migration open the prospects for increasing efficiency and relevance of individualization in the course of mass migration in and from the post-Soviet space.