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Perspectives | Kyrgyz migrants with Russian passports seek alternative destinations [1]
['Aksana Ismailbekova', 'Zinaida Almazbekova', 'China-Central Asia Monitor', 'Joanna Lillis', 'Bahruz Samadov']
Date: 2023-12
Kyrgyz expats looking to get to the United States have relied on social media tools. (Photo: Aksana Ismailbekova)
For expatriates from Kyrgyzstan, ownership of a Russian passport was once something of a golden ticket.
Russian citizenship conferred all kinds of privileges, from eased access to the labor market and the prospect of a pension far more generous than that offered by the Kyrgyz state.
The invasion of Ukraine has upset all those certainties. Unwilling to get involved in a war they do not see as their own, many of these male Kyrgyz migrants have spent the past 18 months exploring alternative places to live.
During a recent visit to New York, the authors of this article encountered three Kyrgyz men with Russian citizenship in the south Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach, a well-established community for arrivals from former Soviet republics. They all cited the risk of being press-ganged into the Russian army as a motivation for making the move.
Along with many like-minded peers, this group relied on social media tools – namely a Telegram channel called AKSHga Jol, which is Kyrgyz for “the road to the USA” – for guidance. This resource offered such information as how to make it to the U.S.-Mexico border and what things to say to U.S. border guards.
“There were several other Kyrgyz with us whom we met in Mexico City,” said one of the informants, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We decided to buy meat at the market when suddenly we saw Mexican cartels who wanted to take one young Kyrgyz, a 19-year-old guy, from the group. We all went to the zoo and waited for hours for the Mexican cartels to disappear. We heard horror stories about Mexican cartels targeting especially young people and selling them for organs.
A Russian passport still had its uses, though. Mexico has implemented a streamlined visa application process for Russian nationals, making traveling there relatively easy.
Once at the U.S. border, the Kyrgyz group applied for asylum appointments, citing their stated opposition to the Russian government and their unwillingness to serve in the army as grounds to be provided a haven.
Upon entering U.S. territory, they were sent to detention centers, underwent medical examinations and received a Departure Number (I-94). Asylum seekers required a U.S. giarantor – known among applicants from the post-Soviet world as a poruchitel -- in order to enter the US border and apply for asylum in different states based on their guarantor's location. The U.S. court's decision process can take several years.
What set their journey apart is that they did not rely on middlemen to organize the whole trip from Russia to the United States. Those services can sometimes cost up to $20,000. They depended solely on the information they found through the Telegram channel. Yet, the migrants do need a poruchitel, who serve as de facto guardians for the new arrivals. A guardian can be any person with legal status in the United States.
Akyl, a 35-year-old originally from Issyk-Kul, is now residing in Turkey.
He explained that his prior military experience made the risk of a call-up from the Russian armed forces particularly acute. When the Russian government announced in May that it was embarking on a mass mobilization campaign, Akyl along with a friend quickly packed their bags. Many had the same idea. The line of cars at the border with Kazakhstan snaked for kilometers. Some even apparently traded in their vehicles for bicycles in a bid to ease the crossing.
After a hard journey, Akyl and his friend reached Kyrgyzstan, but finding few prospects for employment, they decided to hit the road once more, for Turkey. Akyl speaks the language, which gave him more options.
Akyl said that his original plan was eventually to return to Russia, where his wife and two children still reside, once the mobilization period passed. This plan was thwarted, however, once he openly expressed his opposition to Russia’s war only to his relatives or those who are in Kyrgyzstan. Akyl's wife is employed by a Turkish company in Russia and earns a good salary, so she is staying put.
Turkey may be a safe haven for Akyl, but it is uncertain when he will again be able to live together with his family.
Those who return to Kyrgyzstan and stay there describe it as a challenging choice. Starting a business or finding a job can be difficult because repatriates are commonly perceived as a threat.
One informant, Muradil, said that while migrant communities tend when living in Russia to assist one another in finding work and with other essentials, there is less solidarity in Kyrgyzstan itself. Even getting a job as a taxi driver is hard, he said. Muradil said some friends of his managed to set up a business in Bishkek’s sprawling Dordoi bazaar with money they had squirreled away previously.
Beyond all this, however, another counterintuitive trend is emerging. Russian officials have reported on an increasing quantity of Kyrgyz migrants arriving in search of employment, the war notwithstanding. However, further research is required on the new flow of migration. At this stage what we know is that the number of migrants – non-Russian passport holders, to be specific – are staying in Russia.
The stay of non-Russian passport holders in Russia is due to several factors. Russia has streamlined its entry procedures by removing individuals who were previously blacklisted. These migrants are ostensibly not liable to be forcibly recruited by the Russian army, although many are nevertheless press-ganged into the war effort.
Migrants conceal the dark side of their migrant existence, which entails experiences of discrimination and miserable pay, to avoid feelings of shame, fear of failure and to avoid possible criticism from communities back home. Instead, they prefer to present their migration experiences in a more favorable light, emphasizing such aspects as living in significant urban areas, without fully revealing the struggles that they confront.
Aksana Ismailbekova is a research fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum-Moderner Orient. Zinaida Almazbekova is an independent journalist.
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