Współczesne migracje na obszarze poradzieckim przez pryzmat koncepcji migracji poimperialnych

The paper considers applying post-imperial approach to contemporary migration processes in the post-Soviet area. It presents arguments for and against application of the post-imperial perspective to migration studies on post-Soviet states and tries to answer the question whether we can actually label migrants coming from the CIS states to Russia as post-imperial migrants. Domination of Russia among destination countries for migrants from the CIS, special rights they enjoy comparing to citizens of ‘far-abroad’ countries (e.g. visa free regime), Soviet legacy of infrastructural, cultural, political and economic ties between the sending and receiving countries partially justify a post-imperial approach. However, motivation of migrants in the post-Soviet territory being a continuous area may differ significantly from the one of ‘classic’ post-imperial migrants coming to their former metropolis from overseas. Moreover, recent changes on the post-Soviet migration map may be an evidence of the decreasing role of post-imperial factors in determining directions of migration flows and of growing significance of the demand factor.