Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal produced by an international group of scholars. The journal comes out three times a year and publishes materials based on empirical qualitative social research in Russian and English. We invite authors who conduct research on the ways in which migrants interact with urban space and create/use urban infrastructure in post-Soviet and Eastern European cities to participate in a special issue titled “Migrants in the Post-Soviet City.”

The relationship between the urban space that the migrants inhabit and the trajectories of their socio-economic integration into the host society is one of the key themes in the sociology and anthropology of migration. The migrants’ place of residence and the opportunities they have to create and use their own urban infrastructure affect the speed and success of their integration into the host society. The spatial assimilation theory argues that ethic neighborhoods can both impede integration and serve as launching pads for those migrants who seek to be integrated into the host society. The stratification theory, on the other hand, suggests that the inhabitants of the city manipulate urban space to prevent it from being infiltrated by those whom they consider “undesirable.”

The situation in post-Soviet cities differs from that in the West. The Soviet approach to building cities and spatially distributing their residents presupposed social mixing. This legacy manifests even now. At the same time, the growth of transnational migration flows and the complexity of their structure lead to the emergence of new patterns of interaction between migrants and the city. New loci of interaction between the “locals” and the “newcomers” and among different groups of migrants are appearing in urban areas.

Proposals of approximately 600 words, including a brief discussion of the research methodology and theoretical framework, accompanied by the author’s short bio should be sent by November 15, 2018. Please indicate “For special issue Migrants in the post-Soviet city” in the subject line of your email.

If your proposal is accepted, we expect the completed articles (around 9,000 words in length) to be submitted by March 1, 2019, through the journal website.