“Who’s a migrant in postsocialist Europe?”: Popular imagination and geopolitical changes

This paper explores the extent to which geopolitical shifts–the reestablishment of national independence following the fall of the Soviet Union and accession to the EU–are reflected in Baltic States residents’ cognitive images of migrants. Using original survey data from nationally representative samples in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the analysis of popular perceptions of migrants highlights the importance of temporal cognitive coordinates (i.e. the time of arrival) in defining someone as a migrant. The research suggests that recent migration events–such as the influx of refugees and labor migrants–may have reordered the hierarchy of perceived “others,” potentially shifting the focus away from Soviet-era arrivals in the popular imagination. The study reveals a notable discrepancy between the official, institutionalized categories of migrants employed by governing institutions and the vernacular categories used by ordinary citizens, underscoring the limited influence of official classifications in shaping ideas of social and political belonging.