Paper short abstract:

This paper takes an empirical look at the Soviet labour based North-East Estonian town and through that deals with the subjective and emotional sides of people’s mobility. Theoretically, the concepts of soviet and postsocialist subjectivity in migration and mobility are being studied in this paper.

Paper long abstract:

Former Soviet Union was an area of one of the most extensive people's relocations in terms of voluntary, semi- or involuntary migrations that we are about starting to forget as the new migrations are more and more taking place. Soviet migration is often regarded as economic and political, especially when translocal labour migration is in question.

In this paper, I would like to discuss the subjective and emotional sides of Soviet migration that have often went unnoticed. Theoretically, I will draw on the concepts of soviet and postsocialist subjectivity in migration and mobility. This should open up better the complex and contested nature of migratory acts in Soviet context and help to see their implications in postsocialist migrations.

The empirical material comes from North-East Estonian town of Narva that is formed entirely on Soviet migration - translocal labour migration (but not only) - since 1945. I am currently doing there an ethnographical fieldwork which has provided me firsthand data about the everyday life realities of the local people and their life-stories that have interwaved extensively with decisions of movement and staying put.