V. V. BUBLIKOV
Candidate of Social Sciences Belgorod State University
N. G. KUZNETSOV
Candidate of Economic Sciences, Institute of Socio-Political Research, Russian Academy of Sciences
Keywords: "Russian" diaspora, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Thailand, migration flows, "downshifters"
After the collapse of the USSR, migration processes intensified in the post-Soviet space, the main trend of which was the mass return of Russians from the former Soviet republics to Russia. At the same time, immigration from Russia to non-CIS countries has become another direction. Mostly, Russians went to European countries and the North American continent.
In recent decades, the rapid development of once backward countries, the intensification of trade, tourism, and cultural ties with these states have led to the emergence of "Russian" diasporas in the most exotic corners of the world, including in Southeast Asia (SE).
The formation of the" Russian " community1 in the Southeast Asian countries began in the 1960s-1970s, a period of rapid development of Soviet - Vietnamese cooperation, when thousands of Soviet specialists helped in the functioning of the economy during the war, and then the restoration of Vietnam's war-torn economy, and gave an impetus to the industrial development of this country. The long-term work of specialists from the Soviet Union in Vietnam and some other Southeast Asian countries, primarily in Laos and Cambodia, led to numerous interethnic marriages. By the end of the 1980s, the curtailment of trade and economic ties between Russia and these countries of the "socialist camp" in the region led to a reduction in human contacts.
The 1990s marked a new stage of Russia's presence in the Southeast Asian countries. The opening of borders previously inaccessible to Russians and Southeast Asian countries and the rapid development of the tourist flow from Russia, primarily to Thailand, have opened up new opportunities.
Over the past two decades, Thailand has transformed from ...
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