Timeframe: January 2017 - December 2018

The first wave of the post-Soviet migration system, which appeared on the ruins of the Soviet Union, brought into Russia substantial numbers of Armenian and Azerbaijani ethnic migrants who fled from economically disadvantaged and war-affected republics of South Caucasus. Currently the first cohort of their children entered the age of young adulthood, thus can be assessed in respect to the entire set of integration patterns. Characteristics of their education and labor market position as compared with local young adults as well as their social ties composition, identity patterns and usage of different languages are examined within the wide scale research project. The project combines an all-Russian survey with in-depth studies in Russian regions which differ in terms of their economic profile and ethnic composition. According to the preliminary results, second generation migrants in Russia are well educated: in 70% of cases they acquire BA degree or higher as compared with 40% among locals, at the same time they get vocational diplomas 5 times less often than locals. Their education is well converted into labor market positions: among second generation migrants there are more managers and specialists, while blue-collar jobs are twice more often taken by locals. The labor market positions in turn get converted into higher salaries – young adult Armenian and Azerbaijani second generation migrants earn 1,4 times more than locals and 5 times more often locate themselves in the highest income group. Their social ties are rarely purely ethnic and they socialize with Russians quite well, however more than in half of the cases among three best friends there is a co-ethnic person. Their identity is inclusive and combines identification with ethnic category and loyalty toward the Russian state. They are proficient in Russian language (there is no difference between them and locals), at the same time their level of their parents’ mother tongue is lower: in most of the cases they understand and speak but don’t read and write.

* The project has been completed in RANEPA with the financial support of the government of the Russian Federation.

Publications

In English:

1. Varshaver, E., Rocheva, A., Ivanova, N. (2022). E-namus? Social networking sites and conservative norms of romantic relationships among second-generation migrants in Russia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(13), 3240-3258.

2. Varshaver, E., Rocheva, A., Ivanova, N. (2019). Second Generation Migrants Aged 18–35 in Russia: Research Project Results. The Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes Journal, (2(150)), 318-363. [in English]

In Russian:

1. Rocheva, A., Varshaver, E., Ivanova, N. (2019). Integration of Second-Generation Migrants from Transcaucasia and Central Asia in the Tyumen Region: Social, Linguistic and Identification Aspects. Vestnik Arheologii, Antropologii i Etnografii, (2(45)), 166-175. [in Russian]
2. Rocheva, A., Varshaver, E., Ivanova, N. (2019). Integration of Second-Generation Migrants from Transcaucasia and Central Asia in the Tyumen Region: Educational Trajectories and Employment. Vestnik Arheologii, Antropologii i Etnografii, (1(44)), 136-145. [in Russian]
3. Varshaver, E., Rocheva, A., Ivanova, N. (2017). Integration of the Second Generation Migrants aged 18-30 in Moscow: First Results of the Research Project. The Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes Journal, (6), 63-81. [in Russian]
4. Varshaver, E., Rocheva, A., Ivanova, N. (2017). Second-Generation Migrants in Russia of the Age 18–30 Years Old: Characteristics of the Structural Integration. Social Policy and Sociology, 16(5), 63-72. [in Russian]