Between vulnerability and agency: the migration decisionmaking experiences of women from Central Asia in Russia

Abstract

This article examines how migrant women from Central Asian countries make decisions about migration to Russia, focusing on the interplay between vulnerability and agency at the earliest stages of migration. It is based on in-depth interviews with 50 women from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The analysis reconstructs women’s pre-migration conditions, decision-making trajectories, and the gendered configurations of power within which these decisions unfold. The findings identify several strategies through which women enter migration: following a husband, negotiated migration, kin-based chain migration, migration as escape, autonomous migration, women-led “pioneer” migration, and repeated migration. Across these trajectories, patriarchal norms, kinship and family hierarchies, and economic constraints shape the choice, yet women exhibit differentiated forms of agency-ranging from moral argumentation and strategic negotiation to autonomous mobility and survival-driven flight. The study demonstrates that vulnerability and agency are not mutually exclusive. Instead, women act within and through constraining structures, transforming traditional gender roles and obligations into resources that enable mobility and the pursuit of safety, stability, and expanded life possibilities.