Mutations of a Modern Myth: How Changing Discourses of Migration, Patriotism, and Personhood Shape Migration Narratives of Foreign-Language Students from Pskov, 1991–2015
Mutations of a Modern Myth: How Changing Discourses of Migration, Patriotism, and Personhood Shape Migration Narratives of Foreign-Language Students from Pskov, 1991–2015

Summary/Abstract: Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Russian foreign-language students, this articleaddresses questions of migration, patriotism, and personhood in contemporary Pskov.In this postsocialist city, neoliberal discourse is seen as socially legitimate, and pressuresof “marketing oneself” are very real to current students. However, besides viewingmobility as an ”asset” of the “winners” of transition, it is simultaneously associatedwith the “escape narrative,” ascribed to the students of the 1990s. This logic, reflectingcurrents of nationalist discourse in Russian society at large, classifies migration to theWest as a characteristic of the ”losers” of transition and turns Russian emigrants intothe “new others.” Instead of encouraging to improve their CVs through migration, the“escape narrative” dissuades current students from expressing any intention to migrateat all.

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