The "Memory Cartography" of Azerbaijani Emigrants

Emigration from Azerbaijan is a subtle phenomenon, yet far from uninteresting, given both its scale and particularities. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2020 the total number of Azerbaijani citizens living abroad was 1,164,000. This represents more than 10% of the country’s total population. A closer look reveals these numbers break down into a wide range of categories: from genuine and nominal political refugees to students who do not return, from laborers and traders to highly skilled engineers and doctors, and from LGBTQ individuals to traditional families. There is no more recent migration data from Azerbaijan, but it can be said with certainty that, over the past four years, emigration has increased significantly amid various external and internal political events. At a glance, one could say that the current emigration from Azerbaijan is the most intense in its history, surpassing even the period of the First Republic (1918-1920), Sovietization, and so on. It i ... Read full article.