Multicultural Peculiarities for Russia

Multicultural Peculiarities for Russia

In Russia’s case as in the case of other post-Soviet states, the cultural distance between migrants and native population is much less than in Western Europe or America. The uniform system of education existed in the former Soviet Union for more than half a century provides a very good command of the Russian language as the language of interethnic communication. Besides, due to the high mobility of the population of the former Soviet republics today’s migrants have a high degree of social competence. Social communication skills acquired by these people during the Soviet period as seasonal workers, traders in the markets in Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia allow them to function effectively in the economical and commercial spheres. The migration waves of the first post-Soviet decade have already led to major changes in the ethno-demographic and socio-cultural situation in Russia. Migrant workers from the “near abroad” in large part coming to Russia cities are not in order to return home but in order to stay. More than half of million of them have received the Russian citizenship. Many of these people are young ones whose school years occurred in the period after the collapse of the Soviet system of education and socialization of the Soviet type which means that their cultural differences from native population of the host regions are much more important than their parents. At the same time some parts of the Russian territory are inhibited by migrants from Asian countries, especially China, with their own cultural traditions. Generally large Russian cities on their ethnic, linguistc, religious and life-style diversity resemble more and more Western metropolises. There is no doubt that the cultural diversity of Russian population under the influence of migration will only increase. In this situation keeping to the monocultural ideal with the image of Russia as the Russian Orthodox country would be the deafness to reality. Taking into account the domestic and international experience in the field of migration management and the need to refer to the strategic orientations of migration policies in relation to the expected prospects for economic, social and demographic development of the Russian Federation, its foreign policy and the integration processes in the states - members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Customs Union and the Common Economic Area, as well as with the global trends of globalization the "Concept of State Migration Policy of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025"[2] has been developed. The implementation of this Concept should help resolve the problems that prevent the effective management of migration and reduction of the socio-cultural, economic and political risks associated with the influx of migrants[3].  

Appendix 7

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