Speaker
Description
In this paper I will analyse the transformation of mobility patterns and translocal practices among the Azerbaijani minority in south-east Georgia next to the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Drawing on the field research conducted in 2018-2023, I look at transformation of mobility patterns among the Azerbaijani community and the process of re-thinking about the border after 1991 and the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. The border between Georgia and Azerbaijan suddenly “materialised” after the closure of the check-point with Azerbaijan in March 2020. This has affected the mobility of Azerbaijanis in both countries, including the maintenance of translocal family ties and inspired new migration trends (i. a Poland, Germany). The border as the transient and material phenomenon of division between states is still negotiated and contested as exemplified by its former and current state, also as boundary between communities and the state. I focus on the border in material, social, political and symbolic dimensions, using participant observation and conducting conversations with residents of the area who identify themselves as Azerbaijanis. In so doing I’m interested in contexts in which the border manifests and (dis)appears for them. What the border porosity means in this particular circumstance? Under what conditions the border is open and for whom still closed, and how it is materialised? What kind of infrastructures, strategies and narratives are used? To find answers to the research questions, I will also touch on challenges related to the dynamic status of the border.
Biography
Klaudia Kosicińska is a social anthropologist focusing on mobility, translocal practices and migration issues in Georgia. She earned her PhD degree at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2023 with the thesis “Everyday life between borders. Mobility and translocal practices in south-east Georgia” and is currently continuing the research focusing on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border checkpoint status, its transformation and linguistic landscapes in multi-ethnic areas in Georgia. Recently she started also the research among Azerbaijani migrants from Georgia in Azerbaijan and EU and attitudes towards migrants from Russia in Georgia.
