Attitude Towards Migrants and Strategies of Intercultural Interaction in Russia and Other European Countries

The study aims to identify the attitude of the population of Russia and of other European states towards migrants, to determine the strategies of intercultural interaction that are preferable for the host community. The publication is based on a secondary analysis of the materials of a cross-country sociological study, European Values Study (2017). Data for 27 countries were analyzed. The conceptual framework is the complex threat theory, which describes the main components of the perceived threat, leading to prejudice between social groups. To identify the latent variable characterizing the attitude of respondents to migrants, a factor analysis procedure was used. An integrative indicator was calculated that characterizes the attitude of the indigenous population towards migrants. The more the representatives of the host community are convinced of the positive impact of migrants on the development of the country and agree that immigrants are not a source of economic (competition in the labor market, burdening the social security system) and physical (growth in crime) threats, the more positive the attitude towards them is. The study showed that European countries are differentiated depending on the attitudes of the population towards migrants. The revealed differences are due to the action of a set of interrelated factors - the geographic location of the country, the scale of migration flows, the experience of receiving migrants, etc. In Russia, as compared to most European countries, a negative attitude towards migrants is more pronounced. Policies aimed at preserving and developing cultural differences between migrants and the host community do not find wide support among Europeans. Residents of most countries participating in the project see assimilation as a more attractive strategy of intercultural interaction with migrants. At the same time, a significant part of Europeans demonstrate a balanced position, not giving a clear preference for one or another interaction strategy. The attitudes of Russians do not stand out against the general background. A statistically significant correlation was revealed between the positive attitude of the population towards migrants and the respondents' confidence in the benefit to society from newcomers' preserving their customs and traditions. The lack of such confidence determines the choice of an assimilation strategy associated with a negative attitude towards migrants. The revealed correlation is weak in Russia.

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