Conference Program

Identity has been conceptual "shooting star" in International Relations scholarship since the 1990s – according to the Oxford Research Encyclopedias. The “identity” in IR is there a research perspective, kind of postmodern striving for “death of meta-narratives” and an attempt to draw attention to the socially constructed nature of the state and its interests. This is far not enough, considering what identity analyzes can offer to IR research, including examining the causes of changes in social processes to redefine globalization, geopolitics and social transformation at the beginning of the 21st century.

I propose to frame international relations as a relationship between the identities of different political communities, so that we could take a more comprehensive look at the multi-narrative socio-political reality. This would enable a deeper exploration of how the collective polyphony of different cultures and narratives produces processes of social change. All contacts and relationships involve mutual pressure to adapt to others and leads to the exchange and overlap patterns, norms and behaviors of different cultures. According to Hegel, the process of social development proceeds through alternating stages of conflict and reconciliation between groups struggling for mutual recognition. Reaching a new stage never fully satisfies the need for recognition, which leads to questioning the existing order, conflict and an attempt to create a new order. In this way, the human desire for recognition of one's identity gives rise to a complex pattern of social development.

This paper will look at how home and host state intervention can impact migrant communities. It does so by offering a heuristic for understand the determining factors for assimilation or assertiveness in the case of the German community in Argentina during the time period from Presidents Urquiza to Perón (1854-1955). Its main proposition is that there is an interaction between interests and integration on the side of immigrants, but also active state intervention of both host and home states: the economic interests of a cultural group determine the speed and strength of integration into the host society. Despite the many ups and downs in German-Argentine relations, this argument gains additional validity when traced throughout the long time period we propose here. It is valid not just for the integration into the host society but for the relations with the home country as well. There is obviously a certain instrumentality to the construction of an identity, both as an individual and as a group. Evidence for our argument will come from three distinct cultural groups within the German Diaspora in Argentina: the Volga Germans, the German Jews, and the German Bourgeoisie. Apart from the motivation for emigration itself, the determining factors for integration can be divided into two sets, “internal factors” in the host country that condition integration of immigrants, and “external factors” that impact on the migrant communities from the outside. The original motivation for emigration has a significance of its own for how and how fast integration happens.

Russia's war in Ukraine has triggered new developments globally, prompting thousands of Russians to leave the country. There has been a remarkable increase in Russian nationals arriving not only in Europe and the countries of the former USSR but also in much more remote places like Latin America. For example, countries such as Mexico and Brazil have witnessed a doubling of Russian arrivals since February 2022.

Mindful of the role of the Russian diaspora, following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin actively engages Russian nationals residing outside the country to advance its regional agenda through loyal diaspora organizations. Furthermore, the Russian government strategically leverages funds from Rossotrudnichestvo to sponsor cultural initiatives and literary events, aiming to present a positive image of Putin's Russia and involving local political elites in these activities.

At the same time, surveys highlight that many migrants who left Russia after February 2022 do not align with Putin's policies, presenting alternative narratives that challenge the Kremlin's influence in the region. This shift challenges the dominance of embassy-dependent migrant organizations. In this context, despite gaps in the local social infrastructures of independent Russian diasporas, there is clear evidence of an evolving scenario in the region.

Against the above background, this paper aims to characterize this changing landscape, providing an empirically grounded, transnational perspective on the contested agency of Russian diasporas. Positioned as emerging non-state actors, these diasporas impact the stances of their host countries on their policy toward Putin’s Russia.

What is the creative potential of migrants’ everyday resistance? What kind of knowledges and new modes of political existence do they produce? And what are the repercussions for the EUropean border and migration regime, its dominant rationales and logics? Following a Foucauldian understanding of power and resistance, in this research paper I ask the question how people on the move produce and construct alternative accounts of the border regime in and through their everyday resistant discourses and practices. Building on empirical observations of instances of migrant resistance in Greek border contexts based on my fieldwork in Athens, I will investigate how the everyday narrations of migrants constitute the borders they encounter – how they challenge some borders, reproduce others, and even create new ones throughout their journeys. I argue that migrants’ everyday discourses and practices of resistance can be transformative in the sense of producing ideas of how the boundaries they encounter (in their territorial, material, social, cultural, administrative, and discursive guises) should be organised and understood differently. This way, they also challenge binary constructions of state/society in EUrope and produce alternative accounts of community. Empirically, I will focus on migrants’ accounts of solidarity and the ways in which they challenge the state-centric EUropean regime of government. While not every form of migrant solidarity is transformative and with some acts of solidarity among migrants new forms of power arise, I will demonstrate that this solidarity is able to connect societal elements, actors, and narratives across borders in transformative ways.