Social Integration of Migrants from Central Asia and other post-Soviet States (Comparative Study)

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between migrants to Russia and the host society, using surveys taken in the spring of 2017 and in the autumn of 2020. According to German-speaking authors, social integration is one of the stages of forming comprehensive integration of foreigners. Public opinion surveys show that migrants from Central Asia are the most undesirable for Russians. That is why the article gives comparative study of social integration of immigrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan compared to other post-Soviet states (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine). The central focus is given to migrants’ self-perception of their place in the Russian society and to evaluation of quality of interpersonal interaction with the citizens. The results obtained from the study show that migrants from Central Asia are the least integrated into the host society and more oriented towards the sending state compared to migrants from other countries. Also, despite reasonable Russian language proficiency, migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan communicate with the representatives of their own ethnos in every aspect of their lives more often than migrants from other Soviet republics. At the same time, they identify themselves with the citizens of Russia less frequently. The reason for such low social integration of Central Asian migrants compared to other migrant groups could be their desire to return to their homeland and that they may view migration to Russia just as a way of survival in the unfavourable conditions in their country of origin.