#soviet states

[tearsofrefugees]

For Migrants in Russia, Shattered Dreams and Uncertain Futures

Workers from former Soviet states complain of rising discrimination and xenophobia

[woodvavb027-blog]

Irregular Migration from the Former Soviet Union to the United States

Irregular Migration from the Former Soviet Union to the United States This is the first book in English to examine irregular migration from former Soviet states to the United States. It discusses reasons for migration; the profile of migrants; how the process works, how migrants obtain U.S. visas; where they work once arrived; and if they intend to return home. Irrеgūlar Miɡrat¡οn frοm thе Former S0v¡еt Uníon t0 thе Unitеd Statеs

[newstfionline]

Why the protest bug hasn't spread to the former Soviet Union

David L. Stern, GlobalPost, April 8, 2011 KIEV, Ukraine--As populations across the Middle East and North Africa erupt in violence, chaos and sometimes jubilation in their attempts to throw off decades-old authoritarian rule, the silence in the states of the former Soviet Union--most which have similar political systems--has been deafening.

Many observers cast serious doubts that the protests of 2011 could ever spread north, given on one hand, the widespread passivity and distrust of the democratic process throughout the ex-communist sphere, and on the other, the brutal nature of these authoritarian governments.

But others are not so certain: The seeds of discontent are there, they say. Just wait.

At the moment, nonetheless, democracy movements across the former Soviet Union haven't been allowed to emerge, much less gather momentum.

Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko has all but crushed anti-government sentiment in his country after engineering a highly questionable presidential victory in December, last year. Azerbaijan authorities used overwhelming force this past weekend, beating protesters and arresting dozens (as well as reportedly using tear gas and rubber bullets), to prevent a small unsanctioned rally in downtown Baku.

And in Kazakhstan on Sunday, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the country since the Soviet period, won another five-year term with 95 percent of the vote and 90 percent turnout. Western observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe cited "serious irregularities," such as coercion to vote, ballot box stuffing and a deficit of real opposition candidates to Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev, however, was unfazed by the criticism. After the vote, he told a meeting of hundreds of worshipful supporters that the results were more than legitimate and the election proved that Kazakhstan would not follow the path of Egypt or Tunisia.

Make no mistake--a large number of Kazakhs love Nazarbayev. He has preserved stability in his central Asian state as other ex-Soviet republics disintegrated into chaos. Meanwhile, the country's economy, bobbing on a sea of oil, has boomed. Per capita GDP has increased twelvefold since the 1990s, placing Kazakhstan just below Turkey.

But is Nazarbayev, or any of the former Soviet Union's other repressive regimes, truly immune to the rage for change?

Kazakhstan in fact displays many of the same ailments that have brought the masses onto the squares of Cairo, Tunis, Sanaa and Damascus. In Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia--not to mention Russia--the situation is even more pronounced. Corruption is epidemic. Much of the country's wealth is siphoned into the pockets an oligarchic few (which allegedly include members of the first family). Hospitals, schools and other social services are still widely in disrepair. The media are muzzled. And a young, well-educated middle class has been locked out of the political process.

Nevertheless, most regional experts are counseling against any predictions of mass uprisings. First, the former Soviet Union already experienced its own spate of revolutions in the last decade. The fact that many of these left the hopes that they raised to a large degree unfulfilled has left a large number of people across the region suspicious and cynical about popular protest movements in general.

"There is no expectation that revolution produces change," said Oksana Antonenko, program director for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. "One elite group simply replaces another elite group."

Moreover, opposition groups are ineffectual, either through their own ineptitude, or the governments' persistent efforts to harass and co-opt them. "Peaceful demos can't happen at all," said Antonenko. "Police will stop at nothing. And they won't allow days and weeks of demos, as is happening now in the Middle East."

But others say that the regimes' seeming impenetrable facade is possibly an illusion. Maybe the uprising won't take place tomorrow, or even this year, but the objective reality of poverty, repression and corruption in the former Soviet states dictates that people will demand a change at some point.

And as the examples of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have shown, these leaders appear to be all-powerful--up until the moment when they aren't.