An Experience of Creating a Typology of Migrants from Central Asian Countries

The intensity of migration flows to the territory of Europe and Russia determines the relevance of identifying types of migrants because their belonging to different groups affects the effectiveness of their integration into the host society. In the article, the author identifies three typological groups of migrants from Central Asian countries, differently related to life in Russia based on cluster analysis: temporarily settled; not settled; settled forever. The features of each group are described. The first cluster is characterized by a combination of instrumental readiness to live in Russia and a lack of readiness to move to Russia forever. The unwillingness to move to Russia for permanent residence is accompanied by a pretty good knowledge of the Russian language and Russian laws, a fairly high level of education in this group. The second cluster, vice versa, is characterized by a high level of the desire to move to Russia and a low instrumental readiness to move. In this group, the goal to stay in Russia is not yet accompanied by the availability of information and educational resources necessary to achieve it. Migrants belonging to the third cluster demonstrate a high level of development of both types of preparedness, accompanied by a high assessment of the culture of Ekaterinburg residents' behavior, a widespread willingness to change cultural habits, and agreement that Russian culture should occupy a leading place in Russia. The number of observed national traditions and interest in their national history are the highest in this cluster compared to the other two clusters. It does not prevent the entry into a new cultural environment and creates opportunities for the preservation of native national culture. The revealed typology makes it possible to understand that the representatives of the cluster "settled forever" have the most positive attitude to life in Russia. This is manifested not only in the evaluation characteristics of the attitude to the local population, Russian culture, but also in the behavioral characteristics: the development of resources necessary for life in Yekaterinburg, the desire to live in Russia permanently, to obtain Russian citizenship. The authors' hypothesis that the desire of migrants to participate in the integration processes has a cultural basis has been confirmed. This is proved by the results of quantitative and qualitative analysis based on in-depth interviews.

Keywords

Authors

References