Clean fake: Authenticating documents and persons in migrant Moscow

What does it mean for Kyrgyzstani migrant workers in contemporary Russia to be legally legible to the state when informal agencies market fictive residency documents and "clean fake" work permits? Examining the uncertainty around being authentically documented provides insight into a mode...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American ethnologist Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 508 - 524
Main Author: REEVES, MADELEINE
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC Wiley Subscription Services 01.08.2013
Hoboken, NJ Wiley
American Ethnological Society
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Ambiguity
Authentication protocols
Border regions
Deportation
Documents
Ethnicity
Ethnology
False identification
Governance
Human ecology, environment
Human settlements
Identification documents
illegalization
irregular migration
Kyrgyzstan
Legitimacy
Migrant workers
Migrants
Migrations
Morphological source materials
Moscow
Noncitizens
Physical anthropology, ethnobiology
Russia
suspicion
Uncertainty
Urban areas
Asia
Eastern Europe
Moscow
Kyrgyzstan
Russia
Moscow Russia
irregular migration
Kirghiz
illegalization
Suspicion
documents
Authentication
Document
Undocumented migration
Moscow
Kyrgyzstan
ISSN:0094-0496, 1548-1425
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:What does it mean for Kyrgyzstani migrant workers in contemporary Russia to be legally legible to the state when informal agencies market fictive residency documents and "clean fake" work permits? Examining the uncertainty around being authentically documented provides insight into a mode of governance in urban Russia that thrives less on rendering subjects legible than on working the space of ambiguity between life and law. This dynamic has significant social consequences for the way certain bodies come to be scrutinized as particularly untrustworthy, particularly liable to fakery, and, thus, particularly legitimate targets for document checks, fines, and threats of deportation. The ambiguity with which migrants are forced to live highlights the need to explore how documentary regimes, structures of feeling, and racializing practices coincide.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ObjectType-Article-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0094-0496
1548-1425
DOI:10.1111/amet.12036