Migration and Adaptation as Indicators of Social Mobility Migrants

Abstract

The economic and social changes in modern society have resulted in intensive and extensive migrant activity. The article contains a review of social, psychological, and gender aspects of migration from three countries of Central Asia (former Soviet republic)—Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—in Russia (St. Petersburg). The main objective of our study was to identify socio-psychological mechanisms of migration from Central Asia—the general and specific peculiarities of the acculturation process of migrant workers. Participants in the study were labor migrants from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The research was conducted in St. Petersburg. In total, 98 people aged from 19 to 42 years old took part in the research (median age = 32.26, SD = 3.44), among them, women made up 44% and men made up 56%. Three ethnic groups were represented in the sample: Kyrgyz people (34 persons), Tajik people (32 persons), and Uzbek people (32 persons). The research found both general and specific features related to certain ethnic groups. The research results showed that there were significant differences between the migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan by the following acculturation indicators: number of social contacts (friends) among representatives of their own ethnicity and among the Russian-speaking population, type of acculturation strategy, degree of life satisfaction, cultural and economic safety, and anxiety level.