Immigration and Refugee Law in Russia
Socio-Legal Perspectives

How do immigration and refugee laws work 'in action' in Russia? This book offers a complex, empirical and nuanced understanding.

Agnieszka Kubal (Author)

9781108417891, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 April 2019

226 pages, 5 b/w illus. 2 tables
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.56 kg

'Altogether, the book represents an important and timely contribution to the existing scholarship on Russian immigration and asylum law, a fascinating yet clearly under-researched area. Written in a lively and engaging style, the present study is highly recommended not only to scholars working in the fields of migration and mobility, but also to general readers broadly interested in the subject.' Aleksandra Jolkina, Europe-Asia Studies

Immigration and Refugee Law in Russia confronts the issue of access to justice and the realisation of human rights for migrants and refugees in Russia. It focuses on everyday experiences of immigration and refugee laws and how they work 'in action' in Russia. This investigation presupposes that the reality is much more complex than is generally assumed, as it is mediated by peoples' varied positionalities. Agnieszka Kubal's primary focus is on people, their stories and experiences: migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, immigration lawyers, Russian judges, and the Federal Migration Service officers. These actors speak with different voices, profess different ideologies, and hold opposite worldviews; what they hold in common is their importance to our understanding of migration processes. By this focus on individual views and opinions, Kubal highlights the complexity and nuance of everyday experiences of the law, breaking away from the portrayal of Russia as a legal and ideological monolith.

1. Socio-legal perspectives on immigration and refugee law in Russia
2. Immigration and refugee law in Russia: an overview of the legal environment
3. Immigration and refugee lawyers as cause lawyers: cause lawyering with the grain?
4. Everyday experiences of Russian immigration law: the entry bar case study
5. Tracing the case file: culture of materiality in immigration and refugee law
6. The use of human rights In Russian courts: analysis of judgments in immigration and refugee law cases
7. Who are the humans behind the human rights cases? Migration cases from Russia to the European Court of Human Rights
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Comparative law [LAM], Law [L], Human rights [JPVH], Politics & government [JP], History of ideas [JFCX]