Alienating and Unitive Elements of Culture in the Relations between Migrants from Central Asia and Russian Citizens as the Basis of Latent Conflict

In the present article, we study the role of unitive and alienating elements of culture in the interaction of Russian citizens and migrants of different ethnicities from Central Asia. The interest of scientists in the problems of ethnic and cultural interactions between indigenous and newcomers is quite significant. However, we have not found a typology of groups of the host community as carriers of uniting and separating elements of culture with migrants from Central Asian countries in domestic and foreign scientific sources. In scientific works, there is no correlation between the cultural attitudes of these groups and their level of conflict. The application of the anthropological approach allowed us to reveal the cultural characteristics of migrants, which are positively or negatively perceived by the local population, and assess their influence on the conflict potential of the interactions. The perceptive analysis of the interactions between migrants and the local community served as a basis for the interpretation of the results of the questionnaire survey of Yekaterinburg citizens held in 2019-2020 (n = 476). We applied the descriptive method of information analysis, correlation analysis and cluster analysis. In general, based on the set sample, the average number of attractive and repelling features of migrants is almost the same. The higher the number of repelling and unacceptable cultural habits of migrants mentioned by the respondents is, the more common open conflicts with them are. Classification of Ykaterinburg citizens based on cluster analysis allowed defining three groups: bearers of alienating cultural elements, bearers of unitive cultural elements, and neutral citizens. Most frequently, “bearers of alienating cultural elements” mention that migrants themselves initiate conflicts. This cluster is characterized by the maximum level of conflicts, in both latent and open forms. We come to the conclusion that the coincidence of differentiating cultural elements and the reasons for conflict may contribute to the fact that the interaction between migrants and the host community becomes an open conflict.

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