Sources and Practices of Migrants’ Masculinity in a Marginalizing Environment

This chapter focuses on marginalized masculinity of migrants by analyzing life stories of three migrant men who navigate their masculine selves between, on the one hand, a marginal status stemming from being Tajik migrants in Russia and, on the other, Tajik conventional gender norms. It examines the essence of Tajik migrant men’s marginalized masculinity which is largely shaped by experiences of interacting with the Russian police, employers and local population. As migrants’ marginalization in Russia also affects their roles and practices in private relations with Russian women and their families in Tajikistan, the chapter explores migrant men’s flexible and strategic masculinity by looking at their strategies of coping with marginalized masculinity, and its transnational reinterpretation.