The Russian language in the context of socio-economic adaptation of labor migrants from Central Asia in Russia

Abstract

International labor migration is an important part of modern processes taking place in the world, affecting not only the countries’ economies, but also it’s political, social and demographic situation. Due to the peculiarities of the Russian economy, the attraction of foreign workers is an urgent need, however, it should be noted that labor migration carries not only positive aspects for the host countries. The flow of migrants who do not speak Russian well, who were brought up in a different cultural and religious environment and, as a result, are difficult to integrate into Russian society, forms some social development challenges for Russia. In recent years, there have been disputes in the expert community about the language proficiency of labor migrants.This article presents an analysis of the level of Russian language proficiency of foreign workers from Central Asian countries, as well as the impact of this level on various aspects of their socio-economic adaptation. In addition, the article examines the level of Russian language proficiency of labor migrants, depending on their migration intentions, the length of stay in the host country, as well as depending on the field of activity of foreign workers. In the process of the research, the influence of the level of knowledge of the Russian language on the monthly income of a foreign worker was analyzed. It was noted that in order to eliminate the communication barrier between foreign workers and the local population, there is a need to intensify the language training of migrants by developing and implementing language courses, expanding access to them and migrants’ awareness of their availability.