How Putin's Partial Mobilization Turned into Total Mobilization of Migrants

The "partial mobilization" recently announced in Russia has triggered an unprecedented outmigration that may amount to 1 million people (Tofaniuk and Sapronova 2022). It has played different yet crucial roles in the lives of recent Russian migrants, forcing members of various social groups - from non-migrants to transmigrants - into emigration. It is important to acknowledge this diversity in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of ongoing migration processes and their possible outcomes

Syrian refugees and other Syrian forced migrants in Jordan: forms of capital approach

The article explored human, social, and economic capital of Syrian refugees and other Syrian forced migrants in Jordan. Interrelations of their human, social, and economic forms of capital affected their everyday lives in Jordan as well as their future migration aspirations. The data consisted of a semi-structured survey among 408 Syrian refugees and other forced Syrian migrants in Jordan. Varied combinations of these forms of capital significantly impacted the well-being of these Syrians in the host state. Those who consolidated human capital and possessed dispersed and open social networks created coping strategies through education and employment that were more likely to be effective, and they considered immigrating to countries that are more developed. Syrians who lacked capital stocks in Jordan often found themselves at the risk of poverty, immobility or forced return to their ruined livelihoods in Syria. The article debunked the myth about powerlessness and passiveness of refugees and other forced migrants and drew attention to their agency and assets. Their levels of vulnerability in the host country significantly varied among individuals with different capital stocks. The authors provided policy recommendations on empowerment of these increasingly vulnerable migrants

Language, networks and virtual transnationalism: The case of Russian speakers from Estonia living in Finland

Expanding globalization, widely spread information and communication technologies (ICT), and inexpensive transportation facilitate easy, fast, and necessary connections across borders. Many immigrants maintain transnational connections while gaining local exposure to the national social field. This article studies immigrants’ language and social media uses in transnational and national networks. The case regards Russian speakers from Estonia living in Finland who belong to the global Russian-speaking diaspora. The data derive from a survey (n = 327) and interviews (n = 16). Results indicate that the national and transnational social fields of the studied Russian speakers affect and shape one another. Their good command of Finnish reduces structural barriers to work, housing, and other functional spheres in Finland, but it does not secure their social inclusion. The latter is counteracted by their local multicultural networks and transnational connections with their country of origin—facilitated by ICT and social media—as a source of positive identity, meaningful relations, and emotional support.</p

Directly observing squeezed phonon states with femtosecond x-ray diffraction

Squeezed states are quantum states of a harmonic oscillator in which the variance of two conjugate variables each oscillate out of phase. Ultrafast optical excitation of crystals can create squeezed phonon states, where the variance of the atomic displacements oscillates due to a sudden change in the interatomic bonding strength. With femtosecond x-ray diffraction we measure squeezing oscillations in bismuth and conclude that they are consistent with a model in which electronic excitation softens all phonon modes by a constant scaling factor

Development of the Asia-Pacific Region: Current Economic Position and Perspective of Information Society

The article examines the problems of current economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a condition of the system in which its key parameters are the optimal ratio contributing to the existence and development of the whole system. It was analyzed the changing situation in the Asia-Pacific region based on the main characteristics of the researching complex according to the authors' calculated index. It was identified that in the analyzing period the quantitative and qualitative structure of the group of countries has completely changed. It was also provided the classification of the Asia-Pacific countries based on the current level of their economic development. Thus, because of the differences in the economic dynamics it was identified the main differences in the levels of economic development among the groups of the Asia-Pacific countries. This analysis was conducted for identification of the competitive advantages of the information society in the Asia-Pacific region, as the development of a new society based on "knowledge economy" which will be a priority for a long-term perspective