Subaltern citizenship: naturalization and belonging for New Russian citizens from Central Asia
Journal: Citizenship Studies
Year: 2024

This article explores the perils of belonging among recently naturalized citizens in Russia from Tajikistan. As citizenship in Russia becomes accessible to ethnicized migrant workers, it becomes subalternized, a process broader than citizenship's neoliberalization. A racialized understanding of ethnicity, itself a legacy of the Soviet empire, shapes understandings of political membership in Russia. This has influenced both Russian migration legislation, as well as Russian citizenship, as former