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Sustaining Russia's Arctic Cities: Resource Politics, Migration, and Climate Change (Studies in t...

Robert W. Orttung (Editor)

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Oct 24, 2017 Simon Purdue rated it really liked it

Although Robert Orttung’s Sustaining Arctic Cities is not necessarily a history nor is it an explicit study of migration, it does address some key questions about the role that migration plays in the development and sustainability of the modern urban space. As such plays an important role in contributing to my own understanding of the importance and impact of migration, and provides an interdisciplinary viewpoint on the issue.
The book takes three key approaches to dealing with the issue of sus Although Robert Orttung’s Sustaining Arctic Cities is not necessarily a history nor is it an explicit study of migration, it does address some key questions about the role that migration plays in the development and sustainability of the modern urban space. As such plays an important role in contributing to my own understanding of the importance and impact of migration, and provides an interdisciplinary viewpoint on the issue.
The book takes three key approaches to dealing with the issue of sustainability in some of the northernmost urban centers in the world. With input from sociologists, anthropologists, climate scientists and urban planners, Orttung’s collection deals with policy making, migration and climate change, exploring the ways in which these areas are key to making the cities of Russia’s artic extremities more sustainable and liveable. This summary will deal primarily with the second section of the book that deals with migration, asking how both immigration and emigration impact on sustainability. In this section the three essays by Timothy Heleniak, Marlene Laruelle, and Gertrude Saxinger, Elena Nuykina and Elisabeth Öfner track the history of migration in the area from the late Soviet era into today, exploring the historical trends, migrant experience and policy struggles that have shaped the patterns of migration in these cities.
However also of importance is Colin Reisser’s introductory chapter on the recent history and evolution of this often understudied geographic area. Reisser explores the patterns of settlement and the drivers of change (social, economic and environmental) in this seemingly inhospitable region, exploring the issue of migration in the process. Reisser notes that although Russia has sought to populate the northernmost reaches of its land-empire since the seventeenth century, only recently has modern technology allowed for the large-scale settlement of the region. Surprisingly, given the climate and conditions, Russia has managed to do so comparatively successfully, and Reisser notes that Russia’s territory is relatively highly urbanized and contains 72% of the total circumpolar population. Through his chapter Reisser chronicles the three key waves of settlement- early imperial exploration, Stalin’s expansion, and later Soviet development.
Interestingly Reisser argues that the first large-scale migration to the far north was in fact a forced migration under the infamous Gulag system, with political prisoners and dissidents being forcibly transported to the Arctic rim to act essentially as enslaved laborers. This slave labor was used to exploit the massive reserves of natural resources in the northernmost reaches of the USSR, and as such these forced migrations contributed to the formation of the first major ‘semi-urban’ or industrial centers in the region. Furthermore, the ‘Engels Dictum’ dictated that socialist development be spread evenly across the landmass, leading the Stalinist regime to further develop these areas through investment and either coerced or convinced migration. This trend continued in the 1960s, when large subsidies were granted to workers who moved north in the “Northern Shipment” and “Northern Benefits” schemes in order to bolster the natural resource industries in the arctic territory.
The tail end of Reisser’s chapter leads well into Heleniak’s discussion of post-soviet decline. Reisser finishes by noting that the post-soviet era was marked by massive out-migration of workers and their families from these northern cities and the resultant (or perhaps precipitous) decline of their major industries. This is an area into which Heleniak delves in much greater detail, examining the varying post-soviet experiences of Northern urban centers. Heleniak notes that between 1989 and 2013 the population of the Russian Arctic declined by a massive 20%, and when only migration is taken into account (ignoring the slight rise due to increasing birth rates), there was a net loss of 22% of the population. This suggests a massive out-migration in the wake of the collapse of the USSR. However Heleniak does concede that the two major oil-producing centers of the Arctic rim, Khanty-Mansiy and Yamal-Nenets, have seen a net in-migration of around 4%. On the other end of the spectrum however is Magadan, which saw a net out-migration of 62% of its population. Heleniak’s data suggests that the liberalization of Russian society and the introduction of total freedom of movement saw many of the families of the North (many of whom were descendants of the Gulag generation) seek better economic opportunity in the European cities of Western Russia. Interestingly however, Heleniak notes that some of the cities that have the highest gross out-migration rates have equally high in-migration rates also, suggesting a general sense of freedom of movement in Northern Russia and a transient, ‘footloose’ population. Heleniak’s chapter highlights the impact that large scale forced migrations can have after the fact, suggesting that the lack of association with place leads to higher rates of geographic mobility and a tendency for descendants to leave or move freely.
This tends to create an issue in terms of social sustainability however. The newfound transience of the population in these already established urban centers has created an archipelago of social vacuums across the Russian Arctic and has made the modernization and development of these cities increasingly challenging. Marlene Laruelle’s chapter assesses the social sustainability of these cities, looking specifically at immigration and the ways in which this can be used to improve the stability of these cities. Laruelle backs up what Heleniak argues, noting that in the post-soviet era 1 in 6 arctic Russians migrated to Western-Russian cities as the state-run industries and infrastructures collapsed. A dearth of jobs, new freedom of movement and high costs of living were the most significant push factors that contributed to this exodus. But like Heleniak, Laruelle paints a mixed picture in which some regions are seeing an influx of internal and external migrants, who mostly came from CIS states and have gradually moved northwards in search of work or opportunity. Northern regions have benefitted socially from the massive Kyrgyz and Armenian emigrations into Russia in recent years, with central-Asian populations more generally booming in Russian society. Russia has also seen large waves of internal migrations, particularly from the war-torn Russian Caucasus’, and while Moscow and its surrounding regions has been the primary recipient of these migrants, Laruelle argues that the Arctic region has some pull-factors of its own which have attracted Chechnyans to the area, particularly referencing the resurgence of the economically attractive natural resource industries in the region. Laruelle’s chapter paints a more positive picture for the future of Russia’s arctic, noting that immigration trends are likely set to rise in coming decades and that the transience of the existing populations looks set to decline. Naturally migration has created its own set of social issues within these cities however, and Laruelle briefly notes the increase in anti-southern, anti-Muslim sentiment in the Artic North which presents a further challenge to the social sustainability of these urban centers.
Finally Saxinger et al look at the trend of long-distance commuting and seasonal work as a form of migration in the Arctic North, examining the ways in which these movements have contributed to regional integration and connected the Arctic rim to the rest of Russia, both socially and economically. They argue that LDC workers and seasonal migrants offer the region the best plan for future sustainability, noting that transience is inevitable in such harsh and ever-changing climates.
This book offers a fascinating insight into the role that migration plays in one of the most inhospitable and extreme corners of the earth. The exploration of the push factors that led to mass out-migration, combined with new pull factors that drew in immigrants from within national borders and further afield offers an interesting paradox and tells an important story of how migration is often multi-layered and many-faceted.
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