Findings and Achievements

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BLACK SEA CURRENTS: MIGRATION AND COSMOPOLITAN DYNAMICS IN TWO POST-IMPERIAL CITIES, ODESSA AND ISTANBUL
Professor Caroline Humphrey
Co-Investigator: Dr Yael Navaro-Yashin

FINDINGS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

  • This project compared the changing cosmopolitan dynamics and migration flows of two great port cities on the Black Sea - Odessa, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey - focusing on old and newly emergent diasporic subjectivities and identities. Both cities have been represented as 'cosmopolitan' in their Russian/Soviet and Ottoman contexts and been extolled for their harmonious spirit and diversity. The project studied critically the real underlying processes of urban formations and (post) Imperial cosmopolitan imaginaries. The Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey, not unlike Imperial Russia and the USSR, have a long history of uprooting and moving people around. Forced migration and internal exile, as well as the fixing of populations in one place, are facets of cosmopolitanism created by the authoritarian state. A comparative anthropological and historical inquiry into state policies and the political imagination has been a key component of this project.
  • If these cities parallel one another in their complex imperial histories of cosmopolitanism, they have different religious configurations and found themselves on polar sides of the Cold War. The Cold War and its aftermath created pressures and anxieties for each of them, leading both to blocks and incitements to movement and communication across the Black Sea.
  • In recent years both cities have been largely evacuated of their former diverse populations, to be replaced mainly by rural Slavs and new commercial migrants (Korean, Turkish, Chinese, etc.) in Odessa, and Anatolian, Kurdish and post-Soviet migrants in Istanbul. The project questioned the idea of 'new diasporas', seeing them not only as the newcomers to a given place but also as those left behind - people suddenly made to feel diasporic by nationalism in their home city or rendered newly conscious of their ties to other places (e.g. Greece, Israel, the USA, Russia). It explored the diasporic subjectivities resulting from the practices of Turkey and Ukraine and their imperial predecessors. Contemporary forms of coexistence in the two cities were related to their past 'cosmopolitanisms', developing new terms for the study of emergent forms of communication across different communities.
  • These issues were studied through a series of case studies: diasporic subjectivities studied the practices, emotions and imaginaries of those who consider themselves an 'ethnic/religious minority', such as local Roma and migrant Afghans in Odessa. Another study concerned Greek emigrants from Istanbul and their nostalgia. A third was on Russian traders and prostitutes in Turkey, and a fourth was about immigration from rural areas to Odessa. Finally, another study focussed on out-migration of Jews from Odessa and the phenomenon of return migration.
  • History, materiality and the dynamics of cosmopolitanism: the previous communities have left many traces behind, such as houses in specific styles, places of worship and cemeteries. The study by Dr Navaro Yashin in Istanbul focussed on the idea of a 'vertical' cosmopolitanism, having to do with layered historical traces, memory and affectivity in the city.
  • Post-Cold War migration. A paper at our workshop focused on historical and contemporary migration across the Black Sea related to historical Russian imaginaries of 'Stamboul' (Istanbul) and Cold War and present-day images held of Turkey.
  • People on the move. Studies carried out in the project focussed on Black Sea sailors in the Cold War and Soviet periods, and on multi-national youth in the port of Batumi in Georgia. Important materials were found on diasporas, new migrants, international networks, and links between the Black Sea ports Odessa, Istanbul and Batumi during fieldwork carried out in commodity markets in Odessa, and 'Russian' districts of Istanbul. We collected significant ethnographic material about the relations the contemporary inhabitants of the two cities forge with the built environment and the material remains around them, which were left behind by the previous (mostly 'minority') communities who used to live there.
  • One of the key field locations in 2008 was a new type of globalised market-place which has arisen in post-socialist Europe and Asia in the last 15 years, a vast international container market. Using this example, the '7th Kilometre' market near Odessa, we argue that the political and economic conditions that give rise to these vast markets, where goods are sold from shipping containers, can be compared with mediaeval fairs. More generally they can be understood as a kind of heterotopia (Foucault), being both mirrors of, and subversive locales, in relation to the adjacent city. A focus for migrant activity, this market has become the object of a power struggle between the state, the city and the market traders themselves. Migrant traders and purchasers from the Black Sea region are key players, but they are now joined by global entrepreneurs from China, Central Asia and Africa.
  • The research in Istanbul showed that attitudes towards minorities are in constant shift and re-negotiation in the face of current inter-state conflicts in the Middle East. Navaro-Yashin's research illustrated that Istanbulis' relations with their material environment is shaped and informed by public discourses about minorities.
  • A comparative case study of two groups in Odessa, new labour migrants/refugees from Afghanistan and the old community of the Ukrainian Gypsies, has allowed us to conceptualise the ways in which inward-looking sensibilities of diasporic groups coexist with highly valued social skills and knowledge of how to engage with various "others" in the city, and with which "others" to engage. We have introduced the ideas of 'endogamous' and 'selective' cosmopolitanism to analyse these groups.
  • The project also investigated new forms of employment and experience of Odessan sailors. Experiences of a new international work environment have created novel forms of self-identification and ideas about migration
  • In 2009 the project studied the recently established Turkish and Kurdish communities in Odessa and their multiple alliances in the region. This has further contributed to our theorisation of diasporic subjectivity. The immigrants' relations with the local women and Turkish-speaking minorities in the region allowed us to fine tune our discussion and analysis of the forms of cosmopolitan engagements in the city.
  • The project continued study of Odessan sailors, paying attention to the historical background of maritime practices. Caroline Humphrey analysed these with reference to Cold War navigation regimes, passport regulations, shore visits, and relations between crews and passengers. This focus on sailors helps us to develop an idea of the sea as a site of sociality in its own right.
  • A highly successful international conference on 'Black Sea Cities', sponsored and funded by Cambridge University Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) was held. By employing young local researchers in place of Polese and Manzanova, we were able to incorporate a training aspect into the project and generate interest in western-style field methodology in ethnographic research.
  • Social Anthropology: the project has introduced a new region, the Black Sea, hitherto only studied as separate countries. We have also contributed new ideas to the study of migration, diasporas and cosmopolitanism. We followed up our idea of the 'post-cosmopolitan city' from our previous AHRC grant (speculative research) and gave it more depth and substance. There is very little anthropology on sea and sailors, and this project gave the opportunity to develop some new ideas on this theme.
  • An exhibition was held in Odessa, Cambridge and Istanbul for the general public. There was extensive media coverage of this event in Istanbul. The exhibition served to link people across the Black Sea, who would otherwise not meet, and it had especial public resonance in Istanbul. Another 7 months’ funding funding to work on the edited book on the Black Sea from the Isaac Newton Trust, Cambridge.
  • Further research is planned on: a) sailors in Cold War and post-Cold War contexts; b) music and cosmopolitanism in Odessa; c) youth and mobility - Ukrainian 'student' migrants in Denmark; (d) studies of remnants/ruins from Turkey's past minority communities in various locations.

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