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34AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS IN RUSSIA
J. Virkkunen,
University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: joni.virkkunen@uef.fi, M. Piipponen,
University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: minna.piipponen@uef.fi
DOI: 10.19181/demis.2021.1.1.5
For citation: Virkkunen J., Piipponen M. African immigrants in Russia // DEMIS. Demographic research. 2021. Vol. 1. No 1. P. 45-52. DOI: 10.1918l/demis.2021.1.1.5
Abstract. While the Russian migration literature captures well social and economic realities of Central Asian labour migrants, it takes only an infrequent notice of other less visible groups of immigrants. One of such groups, African immigrants, is estimated to consist of about 40,000 individuals, mainly from North and Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper looks at the African immigrants in Russia. After identifying the African immigrants, the article focuses on refugees and economic migrants in more detail. Who are the African immigrants in Russia? How do they see Russia and Finland as the countries of immigration? The study is based on scholarly literature of African immigration to Russia and asylum interview documents of the African asylum seekers in Finland. The most prominent group of Africans in Russia are immigrants distributing advertisements at metro stations in large cities such as Moscow. However, these immigrants struggling with their poor status are only part of the Africans in Russia. The highly educated African diaspora and businessmen trained in the Soviet Union, as well as the staff of the delegations, live welloff lives in Russia and there is little interaction between the above-mentioned "new" immigrant groups. In this article, we focus especially on the "new" immigrants who arrived in Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union and their stories of everyday insecurity. International crime and human trafficking enable asylum seekers to move around in Europe today. At the same time, it puts several groups of people, such as women, children and the low-skilled, particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation during the journey.
Keywords: African immigrants, irregular migration, Europe, Finland, Russia.
The study is conducted with support of the Academy of Finland, projects No. 303480,322407,325449.
Introduction
Russia is one of the biggest countries of immigration in the world. While majority of Russian migration literature captures well different aspects of Central Asian labour migrants in Russia, the scholarly interest toward other groups of immigrants has been infrequent. On of such groups, Africans immigrants, is estimated to consist of about 40,000 individuals, mainly from North and Sub-Saharan Africa [Bondarenko, 2018]. Due to its heterogeneous geographical and social background, the group is very diverse. On one hand, it consists of a small but relatively highly educated and linguistically very competent group of well-off businessmen and diplomats, many of whom arrived in the country already during the Soviet times. On the other hand, Russia is also an important (or 'alternative') destination of African refugees and economic migrants who come to Russia with a sincere hope to either to perform in the country or re-migrate to the West.
This paper looks at the African immigrants in Russia in more detail. After a short introduction of the African immigrant community in the country, we will focus on refugees and economic migrants. This group of immigrants is very different from the more educated and well-off African immigrants. Most of them are newcomers, have only few years of basic education, poor knowledge of Russian language and culture, and face numerous social and economic difficulties as immigrants. In this article we will discuss the following questions: Who are the African immigrants in Russia? How do they see Russia and Finland as the
countries of immigration?
The study is based on scholarly literature of African immigration to Russia and 117 asylum interview documents of African asylum seekers in Finland. African and Afghan asylum seekers made over a half of all the 1164 asylum seekers who came to Finland through the so-called Arctic route' from Russia during the 2015-2016 'refugee crisis'. Most of the 202 African citizens of the route were from North or Sub-Saharan Africa. The biggest groups of them were the 117 asylum seekers who came to Russia as labour migrants, students or refugees, and resided in the country before coming to Finland. The most of them were young adult men between 29-30 years from Cameroon, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. They came to Finland usually without any family members after living in Russia usually from 2 to 3 years, but sometimes even over 10 years.
Africans in Russia
The roots of the African immigration in Russia is longer than we may think. Russia does not have a similar colonial history than many of the countries in the West [Bondarenko et al., 2014: 208]. The first Africans, or individuals of African origin, came to Russia already during the Russian empire in 17th and 18th century. With the increasing foreign trade, some individuals of African origin came with European or American traders as sailors. Dark skinned adopted children and exotic servants with turbans (that functioned almost as decoration), were status symbols of the aristocracy. [Blakely, 2007: 37-45]. One of the most known Africans in the country's history was the Ethiopian grandfather of the writer Alexander Pushkin, Ibrahim Gannibal who was adopted to Saint Petersburg Palace through Constantinople in 1704. However, the most important periods of the contemporary African migration and diaspora are the early Soviet industrialisation, the era of Soviet ideological propaganda between 1950's and 1980's, and the post-Soviet migration.
The first considerably large group of Africans came to Soviet Union during the VI International Youth Festival that was held in Moscow in 1957. The festival was organized as part of a wider cultural diplomacy and the aim to promote the connections of Soviet citizens abroad. The country was just opening from the Stalinist introversion [Koivunen, 2014: 67; Matusevich, 2012]. The African delegations enjoyed the broad attention and their hotels became international meeting places of the 'summer of love' where local youth had a possibility to get acquainted with the 'exotic' visitors from the south [Matusevich, 2012: 333; 2009: 21].
The Patrice Lumumba University is one of the most known international educational centres in Russia and around the world. It was established in 1960 in the post-colonial world political situation where education had a particular role in modernisation and development [Katsakioris, 2017; Zheltov, 2012: 4] estimates that up to 100,000 Africans had received their education in the Soviet Union by 1980, including 700 Candidates and Doctors of Science. These highly educated professionals with good knowledge of Russian language and culture form the well-off and 'respectable' African diaspora in Russia. Apart from active social encounters with fellow students, their language skills and social integration was ensured by paid personnel of the University, e.g. psychologists [Bondarenko et al., 2014: 213]. Good knowledge of Russian language and culture (often combined by marriage with a Russian citizen), strongly supports the social position of the African businessmen, journalists, university teachers, medical doctors, musicians and artists living in Russia.
The second group that forms the basic focus group in our research material, consists of the newly arrived refugees and economic migrants who have left their countries of origin
due to war, persecution, social or political pressure, or abuse. Most of them were from the countryside, had a very low level of education and, in Russia, suffered from unemployment, problems with housing, residence permits or registration, racism and corruption among authorities (particularly among the police). They are also very poorly aware of their rights and responsibilities and are, thus, easily cheated by authorities, employers, smugglers and traffickers who may present themselves as kind helpers. Most of these 'new' Africans fall into the position of irregular immigrants (stay in the country without the required visa, residence or work permit, or resident registration) as the documents were either fake to start with, organized by the smugglers, or the renewal of the documents does not go as planned. According to some estimates, up to 90 per cent of these Africans consider Russia as the country of transit on their way to Europe [Bonadrenko, 2018; Bondaenko, 2014; Ivakhniyuk, 2004].
The following statement by one of the asylum seekers in our material exemplify well the overall frustration related to the 'new' Africans' situation in Russia: "We were like clowns on the beach. We lifted children and danced." [Congolese man, row 1049]. Even though the territorial images are not necessarily based on facts or experiences but contrasting media images and rumours in social networks, the following sections looks at how this group of Africans consider Russia and Finland as countries of immigration.
Everyday Insecurity in Russia
John Round and Irina Kuznetsova [Round, Kuznetsova, 2016] observe that immigrants find it difficult to follow all the complicated formal regulations in Russia, and their enforcement practices are weak. In our research material, narrated stories ofthe African asylum seekers in Finland, this was clear and materialized in strong descriptions of insecurities that seemed to accumulate in migrants' everyday life. Much of the insecurities were related to formal and informal practices of the bureaucracy related to visas, residence and working permits and registration as well as the logic of grey economy that left lots of space for exploitation [see Reeves, 2013; Nikiforova, Brednikova, 2018]. The insecurities were deeply rooted in the status of the 'new' Africans as irregular immigrants that had direct implications for their everyday life, e.g. employment, housing, access to public services, and for the extremely hostile social settings that the migrants coped with. A Cameroonian woman, for example, ended up doing illegal cleaning jobs in Moscow and making African hair styles in a resort by the Black Sea after her studies in Nizhnyi Novgorod, and after her study visa in Russia expired.
"I went to Moscow to visit some friends. I was in the country illegally for 3 years. After my studies I was not able to renew my visa. [..] In Russia, I worked as a cleaner, illegally. In the summer time, I went with other Africans to the beach to prepare, for example, African coiffures." [Cameroonian woman, row 378].
Without a legal status possibility to earn a living were scarce. The immigrants could find only occasional jobs e.g. handing out advertisement leaflets, driving a taxi, cleaning, washing dishes, and sales work in market places. The work opportunities were clearly entwined with extremely wide-spread incidents of racism, corruption and exploitation. Dmitry Bondarenko's [Bondarenko, 2018] claim about low educational level, poor linguistic and cultural skills, and very limited financial resources were evident in our material as well. Even a more educated Congolese man, a journalist by education, ended up living in Russia for four years mainly without valid documents. His painful experiences with employers and authorities was shared by most of the applicants.
"Once in a while you do get work from somewhere but, if you don't have documents, the employers don't pay. That happened to me in December 2013. I got a small job at a construction site and they
promised to pay salary after two weeks. We never saw that salary. Then we called the police, and the police just evicted us and said that you will not get any salary." [Congolese man, row 1049]
Problems with authorities did not relate only to the strict asylum policy of Russia, that formally fulfils international conventions and guarantees refugees with a status, but especially to clear contradictions between regulations and law enforcement practices, and to the arbitrary (and sometimes illegal) conduct of authorities [Ivanova, 2004; Burtina et ai., 2015; Litvinova, 2016; Kunichoff, 2018]. The above presented Congolese immigrant shared his frustration to the corrupted police. Most of the 'new' African immigrants in our material had similar experiences.
"Police arrested if you did not have documents, or gave a fine. If you did not have documents or money, they could takeyour phone away. In 2014, the policy was tight and already then I thought about possible migration. In the suburbs, we had to pay bribes to the police, and we collected those once a month. The money was paid to the police so that we would notget into trouble." [Congolese man, row
1049].
A Gambian refugee describes explicitly the attitude of the Russian asylum authorities and the police. The authorities not only refused him for help but, explicitly harassed him by laughing and mocking. These had a direct impact on his wellbeing in Russia and acted as one of the sources for remigration to Finland.
"I wanted to apply for asylum but I was not able to find where I could do that. I asked about that from the police but they were just laughing about the whole thing. [..] There were racists, people were just insulting and mocking me, and every time I was at work, they ridiculed. Life was too hard for me over there." [Gambian man, row 872].
The Gambian's experiences of racism and race-motivated discrimination and violence were directly related to their background and different outlook [see Boltovskaya 2010]. As the Russian landlords primarily look for 'Slavic' tenants, most of the Africans ended up living in joint overcrowded apartments with up to 20 fellow citizens in a two-room flat. As the police tends to bust the apartments every now and then, the tenants of African origin desire to have a low profile and collect money to avoid punishment and possible expulsion.
As many of the Africans came to Russia as students or labour migrants, the above-described insecurities and everyday struggles resulted in great disappointments. News reports of African and Asian refugees heading to the EU over the Mediterranean in 2015, combined with circulating rumours of 'the open border' in the North, turned into hopes of remigration. A Cameroonian man described it:
"When I came to Russia, I registered to a school where I began my classes. Two months later, the school was closed. When it was shut, that was my destiny. As I was not living in the dorm, I had to do something in order to be able to pay my bills, rent and other things. [..] With the help of another Cameroonian, I was able to get myself a car with which I tried to engage with taxi business. [..] When I was sorting things out, thanks God I found out that the border between Russia and Finland had been opened." [Cameroonian man, row 933].
Longing for Security in Finland
Most of the African immigrants came to Russia with high hopes for security and some form prosperity in our material. With the above-described struggles and insecurities, we can say that Russian reality did not live up to the expectations and they started to look for a way out. While the well-off African diaspora has not had reasons to emigrate, the 'new' African immigrants facing tremendous everyday difficulties look for different possibilities of exiting Russia [Bondarenko, 2018]. During the 'Arctic route', Finland certainly was not the first priority but, rather, 'Europe' or the European Union. Apart from everyday security and
future life perspectives, several 'pull factors' became evident when analysing the Africans' asylum interviews in more detail.
The examples of two Cameroonian men who delivered adds at Moscow metro stations since 2012 and 2013 illustrated well the accidental character of the destination choice among African immigrants. For them, Russia was not only a country of possible employment and income that failed to fulfil the expectations of future but also, as irregular migrants, was experienced as unwelcoming and stressful due to racism, corruption, inadequate access to public services such as health care and education. In this context, media news in social media and the internet as well as rumours of Finland as a refugee welcoming were appealing. They left to Finland only as 'Finland takes refugees' and, as most of the Africans argued, the 'border was open'.
"I thought that Russia is in Europe, I can get some work, save up some money and build up a future. [..] In Moscow, the applicant found a man who told him to go to the Schengen area as, the man told the applicant, Russia was not good for him. The man also promised to help with travel arrangements. [..] Leftfrom Russia at that point as the borders were open." [Cameroonian man, row 785].
"In Russia we thought that we would have been welcomed. The situation was however very difficult, if not worse than at home. Neither social services nor work were available. [..] Tells that the children's' rights were not fulfilled in Russia as the applicant's child did not get to school as the wealth of the family was not enough for the required papers. [..] Decided to come to Finland after searching for information in the internet and hearing about different options from his foreign friends in Moscow. Wants to come to Finland as Finland takes asylum seekers." [Cameroonian man, row 750].
An immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo [row 838] who had worked at Moscow metro stations since 2011 (as irregular after his first visa expired) had another often-repeated motivation for remigrating from Russia to Finland. Not only was he afraid of ever getting married with such a small and irregular income in Russia but he also struggled with extreme loneliness. Many of the African immigrants migrated to Russia and further to Finland without families, alone. Yet, he ended up in Finland as it was closest to Russia and he could finally begin a new phase in his life in a country that had 'good rights' and 'the rule of law'. The latter ones were clear motivations for homosexual asylum seekers who made up one of the distinct groups among Africans who used the Arctic route to Finland. The example of a Cameroonian man [row 507] exemplifies this as well as the intersectional discrimination that even reinforces the feeling of insecurity among immigrants.
"I thought that in Russia I could have life without suffering. It went vice versa. [..] In Russia it was also hard. I cannot support myself even I worked night and day. I cannot even get married. [..] I went from Russia to Finland as I knew that Finland is a country with the rule of law and I can get a new life in Finland. [..] I apply for asylum in Finland as Finland is close to Russia and people have good rights in Finland." [Congolese man, row 838].
"In Russia I was able to express myself better than in Cameroon. But my skin colour made some people furious. [..] Even though Russia is part of Europe, they do not respect human rights; There are lots of people who do not accept or respect sexual orientation of others. [..] If a homosexual goes to the police office to report a crime, the reaction of the police is that why do you come here to complain, go home. [..] I was ready to go anywhere where I can freely express my sexual orientation." [Cameroonian man, row 507].
The other distinct group of African immigrants on the Arctic route was trafficked women. Many of the trafficked women were from poor conditions, unemployed, with very low educational background, orphan or, originally, came to Russia as labour migrants or students. Stories of trafficked women in our material followed the general media imageries
of women who faced serious gender based violence and sexual abuse during the process. So did the geographical origin of the trafficked women - most of them were Nigerians who had been tricked to Russia with hope of a 'regular' job in hairdresser's, restaurant or dressmakers. Nevertheless, for them Finland represented a country of physical safety.
"The applicant was told that she could get a better life in Russia as a hairdresser but in Russia she was forced for prostitution. "The sister of a woman I met in Nigeria welcomed me in Russia and brought me to a house. At night she demanded me to go to the street for prostitution. [..] The applicant refused from prostitution and the woman who brought her to Russia threatened to kill her. [..] I thought that in Finland I would be safe. The woman cannot hurt me any more in Europe. In Russia, she has contacts and can bribe the police. Here in Finland I can tell the police about all these problems but she cannot hurt me anymore." [Nigerian woman, row 770].
Conclusion
In this paper, we have looked at the African immigrants in Russia by focusing especially on the recently arrived refugees and economic migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa to Russia. They have come to Russia in order to escape poverty, war, persecution or political pressure, abuse or to study. For them, Russia represented secure and better prospects for future.
The position of these Africans is very different from the position of more educated and nowadays quite well-off African diaspora that was formed by former students who came to study in the Soviet Union and integrated well due to their good cultural and language skills, as well as through marriages. In order to get an image of how the 'new' African immigrants saw Russia and Finland as the countries of immigration, we studied asylum interview documents of those 117 African asylum seekers who resided in Russia as immigrants and arrived in Finland through the so called 'Arctic route' in 2015-2016. The ones who used Russia as the country of transit was not included in this analysis.
The asylum documents of the African immigrants from Russia materialized in their strong narrated stories insecurities that accumulated in these migrants' everyday life in Russia. The insecurities were deeply rooted in the irregular status that most of the 'new' African immigrants ended up in. This had direct implications for their employment and housing possibilities, access to public services, and for the extremely hostile social settings that the migrants had to cope with. The stories repeated problems related to getting and renewing residence and work permits in Russia, finding any work other than cleaning or delivering leaflets at metro stations, problems with exploiting employers and landlords, and with law enforcement. Arbitrary (and sometimes illegal) conduct of authorities, especially of the police, was one of the major security affecting complaints among African immigrants in Russia. That was closely related to the experiences of racism and race-motivated discrimination. The most vulnerable groups among African immigrants were homosexuals and trafficked women who did not face only race-motivated discrimination but also physical violence and abuse in Russia.
Most of the recently-arrived African immigrants came to Russia with high hopes for security and some form prosperity. However, Russian reality did not live up to the expectations and they started to look for a way out. The stories materialized in great disappointments and experiences of exclusion that were reinforced by scarce cultural and language skills, the low income and irregular status that offered them almost non-existent resources for integration. In this context, Finland (and the European Union) became a new imagined source of security and asylum when Finland's Northern border crossing points during the autumn 2015 suddenly 'opened'.
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Bio note:
Joni Virhhunen, PhD, Research Manager, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. Contact information: e-mail: joni.virkkunen@uef.fi, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8845-1396.
MinnaPiipponen, PhD, Researcher, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. Contact information: e-mail: minna.piipponen@uef.fi, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3190-0728.
Received on 17.06.2020; accepted for publication on 02.11.2020. The authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
ИММИГРАНТЫ ИЗ АФРИКИ В РОССИИ
Вирккунен Й., Университет Восточной Финляндии, Йоэнсуу, Финляндия. E-mail: joni.virkkunen@uef.fi,
Пииппонен М., Университет Восточной Финляндии, Йоэнсуу, Финляндия. E-mail: minna.piipponen@uef.fi
Аннотация. В то время как российская литература о миграции подробно описывает социальные и экономические реалии жизни трудовых мигрантов из Центральной Азии, в ней редко упоминаются другие, менее заметные группы иммигрантов. Одна из таких групп, африканские иммигранты в России, насчитывает около 40 000 человек, в основном это мигранты из Северной Африки и Африки к югу от Сахары. Данная статья посвящена анализу их положения в России. В статье дается определение данной группы иммигрантов, а также более подробно рассматриваются проблемы беженцев и экономических мигрантов из Африки в России. Исследование призвано ответить на следующие вопросы. Кто такие африканские иммигранты в России? Какими они видят Россию и Финляндию как страны иммиграции? Исследование основано на научной литературе по африканской иммиграции в Россию, а также документах собеседований с мигрантами из Африки, ищущими убежища в Финляндии. Самая заметная группа африканцев в России - иммигранты, распространяющие рекламу на станциях метро в крупных городах, таких как Москва. Однако эти иммигранты, борющиеся со своим низким статусом, - лишь часть африканцев в России. Высокообразованная африканская диаспора и бизнесмены, прошедшие обучение в Советском Союзе, а также сотрудники делегаций живут в России благополучно, при этом вышеупомянутые группы «новых» иммигрантов мало взаимодействуют между собой. В этой статье мы уделяем особое внимание «новым» иммигрантам, прибывшим в Россию после распада Советского Союза, и их рассказам о своих повседневных проблемах. Международная преступность и торговля людьми сегодня позволяют лицам, ищущим убежища, перемещаться в Европу. В то же время они ставят несколько групп мигрантов - таких как женщины, дети и люди с низкой квалификацией - под угрозу различных форм эксплуатации во время перемещения.
Ключевые слова: иммигранты из Африки, нелегальная миграция, Европа, Финляндия, Россия.
Исследование проведено при поддержке Академии Финляндии, проекты № 303480, 322407, 325449
Сведения об авторах:
Вирккунен Йони, доктор наук, научный руководитель Карельского института Университета Восточной Финляндии, Йоэнсуу, Финляндия.
Контактная информация: e-mail: joni.virkkunen@uef.fi, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8845-1396.
Пииппонен Минна, доктор наук, научный сотрудник Карельского института Университета Восточной Финляндии, Йоэнсуу, Финляндия.
Контактная информация: e-mail: menn.piipponen@uef.fi, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3190-0728.
Статья поступила в редакцию 17.06.2020; принята в печать 02.11.2020.
Авторы прочитали и одобрили окончательный вариант рукописи.
