In this volume Claudia Sadowski-Smith has created a pioneering, multiethnic, interdisciplinary account of the role of a privileged pan-European whiteness, historically formed at the end of the nineteenth century, and consolidated in the 1940s. Smith interrogates the post-Soviet migration along with problems migrants encountered in adjusting to American life. The author also introduces references to the migration patterns of immigrants to the US from other countries. This provides a useful comparative context for the study of transnational globalization, a movement currently in progress in our changing world.
Prior to their arrival in the US during the late 1980s and early 1990s, post-Soviet migrants became identified as privileged whites, although the substantial diminution of the privileged whiteness model was not being well studied at that time. As before, their assimilation as whites was taken for granted. Contrary to this outmoded expectation of “automatic” white integration in American culture, post-Soviet emigrants formed a diaspora, with an emphasis on the preservation of their native culture. This, taken together with the fact that many of these migrants arrived with considerable cultural capital—a good education, language skills, and strong employment histories—was sufficient to set them apart from other migrants, regardless of racial classification.
In her focus on post-Soviet migration to the US, beginning in the late 1980s, Smith examines some of their stratagems for securing entry to the US, such as marriage and participation in research opportunities. This was true especially for men who, nevertheless, often found themselves with diminished expectations of a secure professional career path and eventual citizenship, even when their qualifications were enhanced through additional studies in the US. Women tended to face different disappointments. Largely excluded from the anticipated privileges of whiteness, many faced a serious gap between work in their former prestigious professions and the low status occupations now available to them. Those who married US men might also have experienced much disappointment in their marriage arrangements. Reduced or non-existent limitations on their mobility could be exacerbated by limited financial resources, often under the exclusive control of their American husbands who refused to supply the needed funds. This precluded regular physical contact with the homeland, a situation that for some led to depression or diminished self-esteem. Contextualizing such disappointments enabled Smith to suggest a return migration discourse, albeit one that rarely translated to de facto returns.
Adoptions of post-Soviet children indicated another avenue to US entry, but it too had its problems. Prospective American parents wishing to establish monoracial families, for example, regarded such adoptees as desirable commodities. Nonetheless, the same children might quickly have become vulnerable to rejection, leading to a return migration, especially in the event of disruptive behavior or severe health issues, often not revealed during the adoption proceedings. Their stories, whether heartbreaking or joyful, offer useful comparisons with potential adoptees from other countries. The collective experience of these young “migrants” also provides a valuable research resource for the study of transnational globalization movements.
This book is of special interest for its in-depth interrogation of post-Soviet migrant immersion in the life of American society. The author has drawn on a variety of interdisciplinary fields, and has employed data from in-depth interviews, reality television, fiction, and memoirs in order to create such a richly-detailed investigation of an important, yet much understudied aspect of the post-Soviet emigration movement. To this Smith contributes a scrutiny of its consequences in American culture, as well as migration studies in general.
The volume's notable depiction of post-Soviet migrant adaptation to US culture and society also addresses the long term influence of the original whiteness model, and with its strongly-indicated white superiority. It did not take long before such privileged, pan-European whiteness hardened into the idea of white superiority. It became embedded in US culture, ultimately to be expressed as toxic racism, and with it the intolerance, bigotry, and prejudices found in our society today.
The present volume establishes an invaluable foundation for any study of post-Soviet migratory paths to the US, and efforts of the new arrivals to adjust to the realities of relocation and cultural differences. Attempts to preserve an ethnic heritage led to the construction in the US of diasporas rooted in their native cultures. An examination of this process moves it into an area of research that investigates the important role of that phenomenon in the current transnational globalization movement.
