We are delighted to announce that the 2015 MSc in Migration Studies Dissertation Prize has been awarded to Yan Matusevich for his work on ‘Understanding migrant mobilisation in post-Soviet Russia. Do Existing theoretical models apply?’  

The prize is awarded at the discretion of the degree’s Exam Board each year.

The dissertation articulated an intersecting set of problem-questions: 1) why are Central Asian migrant workers in Russia not mobilising, given the oppressive conditions to which they are exposed?; and 2) are Western conceptual models applicable for thinking about political action in the historically and politically specific context of post-socialist Russia? The questions were contextualised in the relevant literature on social movements, and the case made for a Western bias in existing scholarship on migrant mobilisation, which the dissertation set out to correct.

All students on the MSc in Migration Studies who receive a distinction in their dissertations are encouraged to revise their work for simultaneous publication in the COMPAS and IMI Working Paper Series. This year, six candidates in all have been invited to publish.