Analysis of transnational practices of the former USSR emigrants in New York and Los Angeles: Russians in America or Americans from Russia?

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the first stage of a study devoted to exploring how different categories and groups of migrats are involved into one or several transnational social spaces (according to T. Faist definition). 13 qualitative focused interviews were carried out in two American cities, New York and Los Angeles in 2015 as a part of theis project. The informants were the former USSR migrants who left the country of origin in 1990—2010s to permanently settle in the U.S.A. The first part of the ar- ticle characterizes the stages and directions of migration from the former USSR territory as well as basic interpretations of the transnationalism concept that im- plies migrant’s simultaneous presence in two social spaces «here» and «there» (usually in two nation states). The second part of the article provides an analysis of the interviews with migrants living in two large American cities. The results of the study prove that informants have transnational practices which in turn allow to recognise them as transnational migrants despite the fact that the migration process is not finished for them.