Identity Construction in Diaspora: How Officials Working in Various Tajik Diaspora Organizations Construct and Address Their Members

Abstract

The Tajik diaspora in Russia is the largest Tajik emigrant community outside of Tajikistan. More than 3 million Tajiks have been registered officially in Russia by 2021. Among them, more than 2 million claimed “work”- while entering the border of Russia. Tajik diaspora in Russia is heterogeneous and includes core, semi-peripheral and peripheral parts which shows the gradual establishment of Tajik communities in Russia. This study aims to find out how officials working in various diaspora organizations construct and address their members – as either a diaspora or as migrants. It furthermore also explores what members expect from the organizations they are members in as well as how satisfied they are with these services they provide. Social movement theory was used in this study, since the establishment of diaspora is based on social mobilization. This theory assisted to find out how Tajik diaspora organizations in Russia construct their members and how leaders of Tajik organizations assist labor migrants. The primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews via several social media platforms, since it is best suited for finding out the answer for research question. (will change after the interview analysis)