Bridges Across Borders

This volume explores emerging patterns of migration from Central Asia to underrepresented destinations such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Nordic countries, and Türkiye. It critically examines diverse dimensions of mobility—labor migration, student migration, return migration, gendered experiences, diaspora activism, digital media, and host country responses—through empirically grounded and theoretically rich chapters. Drawing on in-depth case studies and fieldwork, this volume contributes to global migration studies while offering unique insights into post-Soviet identity transformations and comparative integration experiences.

It also responds to pressing contemporary concerns, including Russian migration to Central Asia post-Ukraine invasion, migration governance during COVID-19, and gender advocacy through digital platforms in authoritarian contexts. The chapters bring together voices from early-career and senior scholars, combining interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology, international relations, political science, anthropology, and media studies.

Timur Dadabaev is a Professor of International Relations and the Director of the Special Program for Japanese and Eurasian Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tsukuba, Japan. His books are The Grass is Always Greener?: Unpacking Uzbek Migration to Japan (Palgrave, 2022), Decolonizing Central Asian International Relations (Oxon: Routledge, 2021), Transcontinental Silk Road Strategies (Oxon: Routledge, 2019), Chinese, Japanese and Korean In-roads into Central Asia (East-West Center 2019), Japan in Central Asia (NY: Palgrave 2016) and Identity and Memory in Post-Soviet Central Asia (Oxon: Routledge, 2015) and others.

Shigeto Sonoda is a Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies at the University of Tokyo. His recent book publications include Japan-China Relations 2001-2022 (co-ed., 2023), Uzbek Migrants and Japanese Society (co-ed., 2023), and Japan-China Exchange (ed., 2025, all published by the University of Tokyo Press in Japanese).

Kirill Nourzhanov is Associate Professor and Deputy Director and Convenor of Higher Degree by Research studies at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia). His recent publications include The Spectre of Afghanistan: Security in Central Asia (2021) co-authored with Amin Saikal, and Soft Power in Central Asia. Politics of Influence and Seduction (2021) co-edited with Sebastien Peyrouse.