A Note on the Definition of Ethnic Enclave

Ul'yanov Mikhail Vladimirovich PhD in Law Senior Research Associate, National Research Institute of the University of Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation 123022, Russia, Moscow, 2nd zvenigorodskaya str., 15 m.ulyanov2@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

        The negative consequences of uncontrolled migration flows to the Russian Federation are once again becoming the subject of public attention. Due to the significant volume of migration, the formation of ethnic enclaves in large cities ceases to be only a speculative construct. While the focus on segregation of diasporic groups has never been in doubt, the formation of enclaves similar to European ethnic neighborhoods has been hindered to a certain extent by the nature of the housing and real estate market. Currently, this factor is losing its importance.

          The prospects of enclavization are assessed as possible. E.B. Bedrina, for example, came to a similar conclusion based on the analysis of some criteria for assessing residential neighborhoods in Yekaterinburg (housing cost, proximity to a transport hub, the presence of religious centers, etc.). Studying the number of children of foreign citizens in schools allowed her to characterize the sectoral model of urban space development ^{[1, pp. 451-464]}.

         The processes of consolidation and enclavization of immigration ethnic communities are inseparable both from the scale of migration inflow to the Russian Federation and the unevenness of their distribution across the country. The increase due to external migration is significantly higher in terms of its indicators than in previous years.

           The instability of the current migration situation is indicated by official statistics. In 2022, 16,870,094 foreign citizens were registered for migration. Over the past five years, the largest number of foreign citizens have been registered in the territories of the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, the Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnodar and Primorsky Territories, Irkutsk, Kaluga, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Samara and Sverdlovsk regions (see Table 1). About a third of the migration increase in the country was given by the Central Federal District.

Table 1

Selective information on the number of facts of migration registration of foreign citizens and stateless persons (Hereinafter: Statistical information on the migration situation // URL: https://мвд.рф/dejatelnost/statistics/migracionnaya (accessed: 10.08.2023)

Over the past five years, the number of issued citizenships of the Russian Federation in the context of all countries has increased significantly.

Acquisition of citizenship by former citizens of Ukraine is characterized as an objective process and is conditioned by the current situation. At the same time, it should be noted that, excluding Ukraine, the acquisition of citizenship by immigrants from other states has almost tripled. So, if in 2018 they received 131,947 citizenship, then in 2022 – already 394,144, and in 6 months 2023 – 165,935 (2019 – 198,395, 2020 – 246,798, 2021 - 359,396) (see Table 2). Such a trend can be called unprecedented.

Table 2

Selective information on the number of persons in respect of whom a decision has been made to acquire citizenship of the Russian Federation

The processes of enclavization, therefore, may worsen due to the high rate of changes in the ethnic composition of the population. In this connection, there are questions about the content of the concept of "enclave", as well as the establishment of criteria that make it possible to distinguish an enclave.

The concept of "enclave" in a narrow sense, namely, as a place of compact residence of people of a single ethnic and religious affiliation, is used in a number of strategic planning documents of the Russian Federation.

Paragraph 14 of the Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 (approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 19.12.2012 No. 1666) indicates an "ethnic enclave", paragraph 26 of the Concept of the State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for 2019-2025 (approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 31.10.2018 No. 622) – "ethnic (polyethnic) enclave", item 27 of the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 02.07.2021 No. 400) – "ethnic and religious enclave".

The problems of enclave formation are also noted in the strategic planning documents of federal state authorities, state authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation and at the level of municipalities ^{[2, pp. 48-53]}.

At the same time, the listed definitions are not fixed in the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The issues of conflictogenicity of ethnic enclaves and migration processes were considered in the works of such scientists as O.A. Evlanova ^[3], A.S. Klementyev ^[4], P.N. Kobets ^[5], V.V. Merkuryev ^[6], I.V. Nikitenko ^[7], etc.

At the same time, the study of domestic scientific literature allows us to conclude that the topic of ethnic enclaves and enclavization does not have sufficient elaboration.

This is confirmed by the data of E.A. Trushkova, who, based on a bibliometric analysis of 365 scientific publications on the topic of ethnic enclaves dated 2000 – 2018, came to the conclusion that the main problems raised by the authors are mainly of a general nature, while regional aspects of enclavization are not covered. The majority of scientific publications relate to political sciences (24%), followed by sociology (19%), economic sciences (18%), the field of historical knowledge (11%), state and legal disciplines (10%), the rest - to the field of philosophy, culture and demography ^{[8, p. 384]}.

Among the few definitions, one can single out the definition of A.A. Iontsev, who interprets an enclave as a territory of compact residence of immigrants, constantly replenished as a result of the influx of new immigrants-compatriots (for example, Brighton Beach in New York) ^{[9, p. 97; 10, p. 9]}.

The Demographic Encyclopedia edited by A.A. Tkachenko focuses on the isolation of the ethnic enclave in cultural and socio-economic terms ^{[11, p. 31]}.

A.S. Melnikova, citing the main features, speaks of an ethnic enclave as a part of immigrants forming compact places of residence of an ethnically homogeneous population with the creation of a characteristic cultural and economic environment forming cohesive stable national groups ^{[12, p. 329]}.

Another definition is given by V.I. Mukomel, who understands by "enclave" such a community within a broader community, where self-organization by differentiating features is stronger than self-organization by integrating features, regardless of the place of these latter in the hierarchy of significance. At the same time, the differentiating features can be both ethnic and any other related to the concept of "alien" ^{[13, p. 16]}.

It is common for domestic researchers that quantitative indicators are not used when constructing enclave definitions.

Western studies, due to the peculiarities of historical development, differ in a much greater degree of elaboration of the studied problems. The basis of the long-term discussion was an article by Wilson and Portes in 1980 based on empirical data on the socio-economic situation of Cuban immigrants ^[14]. The paper talked about the "enclave economy", a characteristic feature of which is the formation of a labor market by enterprises belonging to migrants, replenished by new migrants.

Thus, an ethnic enclave is a group of immigrants concentrated in a certain territory, whose enterprises serve their own ethnic market or the population as a whole, while a significant part of the immigrant workforce works at these enterprises ^{[15; 16, p. 68]}.

It is important to say that researchers pay attention to the fact that the "enclave hypothesis" exists outside the framework of the assimilation theory, which assumes the inclusion of arriving migrants in the economic activities of the state. It is believed that assimilation has long ceased to be the main topic of immigration studies ^{[17, p. 444]}.

Another debated issue in Western sociology is the ethnic composition of the enclave, which rarely consists of only one ethnic group. For example, in the conditional chinatown there are people from different Asian countries ^[18].

Thus, we note the obligatory sign of the existence of a special economic structure in the enclave, which excludes the processes of assimilation of migrants.

Another aspect is applied approaches to the identification of an ethnic enclave. For example, Yu.F. Kelman, based on the analysis of modern American studies, indicates the following approaches:

the first approach is related to the use of the quantitative principle, when the key parameter is the share of the "titular" group in the population of the district (for example, at least 20% of the population);

the second approach involves using the share of a certain group in the population of the district compared to the population of the city as a whole;

the third approach does not take into account statistical data and is based on the history, toponymy, image and appearance of the district ^{[19, p. 127]}.

In addition, the dissertation used the field method of geographical research of ethnic enclaves in major cities of the United States, which is of considerable interest. Thus, a list of visual indicators or external signs of an ethnic enclave was derived (specific educational institutions, shops, monuments, graffiti, restaurants of national cuisine, elements of national clothing, language of communication, and others), which is the basis for the methodology of field research of ethnic areas, including walking inspection of the territory, photographing and fixing external signs on the district plan, an assessment of the degree of their severity ^{[19, pp. 130-131]}.

The use of the quantitative principle is connected with the question of the presence or absence of a certain threshold value, upon reaching which the segregation of the population and the subsequent emergence of an enclave occurs.

One of the first mathematical models in the field of social modeling is called the Schelling segregation model ^[20], published in 1971. Using the example of the interaction of two racial groups, the author gave various options for their clustering both within a separate territory and within a community. Changes in factors such as the number of representatives of another race in the environment, their overall ratio, tolerance threshold and others were taken into account ^{[21, p. 9]}.

At the same time, in contrast to the early statements that there is a threshold value or a "turning point" in 20% of a new minority in the area, after which an ethnic racial or other majority begins to leave it ^[22], Schelling's work assumed different options depending on changes in the specified factors.

To date, a large number of variations of the model have been proposed, including using special software. Russian researchers also offer their own variants ^{[23; 24]}.

Thus, it should be noted that negative consequences can occur even with a relatively small proportion of the arrived minority, and the enclave is characterized primarily by the presence of stable socio-economic ties that exclude the processes of assimilation of ethnic and religious communities.

Among the negative consequences of enclavization and related migration processes, it is necessary to highlight the growth of crime in general, as well as the number of extremist manifestations both on the part of local residents and representatives of diaspora groups, social resistance in the behavior of the diaspora group ^[25], criminalization of economic activity. The most serious threats are related to the activities of organized criminal groups. Ethnic criminal groups located on the same territory tend to unite, which creates conditions for the formation of ethnic criminal communities ^{[26, p. 175]}.

Taking into account this experience, it should be concluded that when designing the definition of an enclave, taking into account the peculiarities of migration registration in the Russian Federation, it is inappropriate to refer to quantitative indicators. Acceptable in this case would be a descriptive definition containing the main external features of the enclave.

Thus, an ethnic (polyethnic) enclave can be understood as the territory of the presence of cohesive ethnic minorities, the differentiating feature of which is the presence of a special economic structure and socio-cultural environment that exclude the processes of assimilation into society. When selecting an enclave, sociological methods are used, namely, questionnaires and surveys of the local population, as well as methods of geographical survey with the identification of external signs.