Ethno-cultural peculiarities of attitudes to immigration in Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the ethno-cultural peculiarities of the attitude to immigration, which Russia faced after the collapse of the USSR. The increase in migration mobility of the population of the CIS countries, associated with the uneven socio-economic development, has led to the fact that a significant part of the population of the Russian Federation faces migrants one way or another. At the same time, Russian society is characterized by an extremely cautious attitude to immigration and its perception through the prism of ethnic and cultural stereotypes that affect the assessment of people from different countries and regions in different ways. In accordance with these guidelines, the peoples of the Slavic states of the CIS are considered by the mass consciousness as closer than the population of the Asian republics. On average, the level of negative attitude towards migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus is 2-3 higher, and positive - lower than to immigrants from Belarus and Ukraine. In the world and regional rankings, Russia's attitude to migration is one of the last places today, ahead of even the neighboring CIS countries in its rejection. The general deterioration of attitudes towards migrants that took place over the last fifteen years have affected the perceptions of residents of Slavic republics. And the attitude to the citizens of Ukraine has deteriorated more than to immigrants from Belarus, which was the result of the conflict around the Crimea and Donbass. Moscow's relations with its partners in the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS are negatively affected by this perception of migration by Russian society, which, however, does not yet have a direct impact on the integration processes.