The post-soviet space between north and south: Discontinuities, disparities and migrations

Julien Thorez (1)

1 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

Organization of the post-Soviet space has been fundamentally and permanently transformed since the collapse of the USSR. A 'territorial transition' was sketched in the context of a diversification of actors in the political, economic and social fields, be it at state level, entrepreneurial or informal, national or international. Marked by dynamics of fragmentation, disintegration, but also integration and unification, this process has been redrawing the map of Europe and Asia. Depending on the regions and scales, these spatial dynamics give rise to a heterogeneous territory where both countries integrated into the European Union and countries linked to Western and Southern Asia co-exist now around Russia. In this context, the restructuring of the means of production in times of economic crisis, the liberalization of exchange based on offer and demand and redefining the geopolitical balance modified the position of countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus within the global arena. In the bipolar world, as a Soviet region, Central Asia was generally perceived to be in the 'developed world' in scientific works and expert reports, although some works questioned its inclusion in the “third-world”. For many, the unity of the Soviet space, based on the centre-periphery model, outweighed regional inequalities although Central Asia was sometimes considered to be a “dominated periphery”. Twenty years on from the commencement of the 'transition' and in the context of a global world, Central Asian and Caucasian countries are associated with the idea of the “South”, irrespective of the different paths taken.This “third-worldization”, an original evolution by all accounts, results from the magnitude of the economic and social crisis that followed the disintegration of the USSR. But this idea is also based on a classic post-colonial analysis of the post-Soviet space, the frontier between “North” and “South” corresponding in almost all publications to the Southern border of the former metropole, Russia. This analysis is also based on the identification of characteristics of post-colonial situations: the expansion of landlockedness as a result of the internationalization of former inter-republican Soviet borders ; the increase in migrations of imperial populations to their homeland ; and the boom in labour migration towards the former metropole. A new geography of development thus takes form in a post-Soviet world where, between “North” and “South”, societies and territories are changing, in the context of increasing socio-political inequalities and transformation of practices of mobility.

Mots clés: Central Asia; spatial inequalities; discontinuities; development; Post-soviet space; Post-soviet transition; Uzbekistan; Tajikistan; Russia; Kyrgyzstan

Mots clés: Asie centrale; Inégalités spatiales; discontinuités; migrations; transport; Espace post-soviétique; Transition post-soviétique; Ouzbékistan; Tadjikistan; Kirghizstan; Russie; Dévelopement

Domaines: Géographie

Julien Thorez. The post-soviet space between north and south: Discontinuities, disparities and migrations. Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus – Migration, Democratisation and Inequality in the Post-Soviet Era, I.B. Tauris, pp.215 - 241, 2014. ⟨hal-01482275⟩