Interviews with administrators and teachers of "Russian schools" as a source to research adaptation strategies of emigrants from Russia and other post-soviet countries abroad

The author of the article studies the possibilities to use interviews with directors and teachers of schools, working abroad, as a source to research the problems of ethnic migrants' integration. Of the whole array of such schools, so called "Russian schools" are selected. These are schools where Russian language is taught, or where some subjects are taught in Russian. Despite the fact that the total number of people who speak Russian on our planet is becoming less, in some regions of the world the number of schools with Russian language teaching is growing. Such trends are typical now, for example, for many European countries. Speeches dedicated to the role of Russian language and Russian schools in the contemporary political situation, made by the directors and teachers of such schools, have become the main source for this article. The basic target of Russian schools is clear - to save Russian language and elementary knowledge of the Russian culture among the children from the Russian families. However, this target is followed by two different adaptation strategies, which are used by the students' families - emigrants from Russia and other post-Soviet countries. One of them represents a wish to make children's integration into the receiving society with alien culture a more "soft" and psychologically comfortable process, without losing links with native language and native culture. The other one represents an unwillingness to become a part of the receiving society from the socio-cultural point of view. It can be even the strategy for people who have a good level of new language and are visibly integrated into the economic life of the society. The hypothesis of this research is the following: it is possible to study adaptation strategies of the families of Russian-language migrants via a choice of this or that educational trajectory for their children within the system of basic or supplementary education. The author of the article is sure that the role of educational system is crucial for ethnic migrants' integration into a new environment. That is why directors and teachers of Russian schools are aware of the problems of children's adaptation to the society with alien culture, as well as they reveal how they understand their own "mission" in the work with the children - both from the diaspora and the local community. Geographically the frames of this research are mostly the countries of Europe and post-soviet space. Chronologically the frames of the materials used are 5 years, from 2013 to 2018. The article presents and analyses the speeches of the directors and teachers of Russian schools from Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The results of the mini-research show the possibility and importance to attract the described type of source to make researches in the sphere of migrants' integration via education.

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