Late-Soviet Moscow tied migrant inclusion to labor compliance

What the study found: The study found that in late-Soviet Moscow, state-owned enterprises helped manage migrant worker inclusion by tying it to labor performance and compliance. The paper shows that enterprises acted as migration intermediaries and used dormitory conditions to govern migrant workers.
Why the authors say this matters: The authors suggest this matters because migration scholarship has often focused on neoliberal Western states, while this study extends the idea of migrant deservingness to a socialist context. The study suggests that conditionality for civic inclusion developed beyond neoliberal shifts in contemporary citizenship.
What the researchers tested: The researcher examined migrant “limit” worker management in Moscow from the early 1960s to 1987. Using archival materials, the paper analyzes how state-owned enterprises, dormitory managers, and union officials handled migrant worker inclusion.
What worked and what didn't: Civic campaigns in the early 1960s gave enterprises an ideological framework and material base for managing migrant workers at dormitories. Managers and officials redirected resources from social activism and cultural tutelage toward baseline productivity and compliance, and they substituted dormitory conditions for assessments of migrants’ moral and productive status.
What to keep in mind: The abstract does not describe quantitative measures or comparative cases. Its claims are limited to the Moscow case and the period from the early 1960s to 1987.

Key points

• State-owned enterprises in Moscow functioned as migration intermediaries for migrant workers.
• Migrant inclusion was tied to labor performance and compliance in the dormitory setting.
• Civic campaigns in the early 1960s helped enterprises govern migrant workers.
• Resources for social activism and cultural tutelage were redirected toward productivity and compliance.
• The paper extends migrant deservingness research to a socialist context.