Central Asian migrants in Russia: adaptation strategies[Среднеазиатские Мигранты В России: Стратегии Адаптации]

Despite the widespread attitude towards migrants from Central Asia as “guest workers”, a significant part of them de facto live in Russia permanently. Some of them are holders of a Russian passport, some have a residence permit or temporary residence permit, and some do not have a regulated legal status. Most of them hardly ever leave Russian territory, visiting their homeland once a year for one or two months and returning again to their place of residence in Russia. Unlike their compatriots who make a choice of circular migration, these are people who have firmly linked their life and the life of their children with Russia. However, their strategy cannot always be described in terms of “integration.” In many cases, a more adequate category of description is “transnationalism.” The latter involves maintaining intensive interactions in two social spaces simultaneously, both in the country of origin and in the host one. This paper reviews actual academic literature on Central Asian migration, transnationalism, the problem of adaptation of migrants, and also offers the results of our own research into the adaptation strategies of migrants from Central Asia in Russia.