Integration problems of internal ethnic migrant workers

Massive inflow of migrants into Russian regions leads to tensions between them and local communities. Majority of migrants are foreigners but the local community has also issues with the "visible minorities" who, being Russian citizens, are internal migrants, especially from Northern Caucasus. Their being Russian citizens makes it hard to use traditional measures of the migration politics towards them. The potential for local communities consolidation is seen in the use of measures to integrate internal migrants. The article looks at the approaches to studying and measuring migrants' integration and suggests methods of integration assessment. Author analyzes factors and level of integration of internal migrants who are "visible minorities". It is shown that migrants' integration level differs according to the region and is associated with their socio-demographic characteristics, migration experience, socio-economic positions and value orientations. Special attention is paid to the analysis of local communities' integration. It is shown that integration levels of migrants and non migrants into local community are closely connected. In the regions where local communities are better integrated, migrants' integration is more successful: favorable social context facilitates migrant integration. At the same time, local community integration level is associated with the socio-economic and political context of region population formation. The article is based on the research conducted by the Institute of Sociology RAS in 2014-2015 in 4 regions of Russia. 2760 non-migrants and 1003 migrants were interviewed. The migrants were "visible minorities", mainly from Northern Caucasus.