The Dynamics of Attitudes Towards Migration in Russia (according to data of the European Social Survey 2006–2016)

Abstract

The studies of attitudes towards migration in Russia indicate a negative attitude of the receiving population towards migrants and the consequences they bring. Despite the fact that there are works done on individual waves of the European Social Survey (ESS) study, the question remains as to what the dynamics of attitudes towards migration in Russia is and what is the reason for the negative attitude. A review of studies on the causes of negative attitudes towards migrants over the years has shown that in most studies the economic factor has the strongest explanatory power. More pronounced negative attitude in countries with a large proportion of migrants in the population, with a high level of unemployment in the country.In an article based on data from the five waves (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016), the ESS examines the attitude of Russians to migration over a period of 10 years. At the 2016 data, there is an increase in negative assessments of the variables under consideration, which characterize the attitude towards the relocation of migrants into the country of the respondent and the assessment of the changes introduced by migrants. Using regression with dummy variables, an attempt is made to determine the factors affecting the attitude of Russians to migrants. Several models have been built, including economic, cultural, contextual, sociodemographic factors and the human capital factor, in addition, all models included the variable of the year of study, taking into account the effect of the period. It was revealed that none of the models constructed explains the attitude of Russians towards migrants in the dynamics of years in Russia, the coefficient of determination in all versions of the models built did not exceed 1%. The conclusion about the limitations of the database to identify factors influencing the attitude of Russians to migrants in the dynamics of years is substantiated. Restrictions, in particular, are related to the fact that many of the variables of interest do not repeat in all ESS waves, which makes it impossible to study them in dynamics. The potential of qualitative methods as a possible option for further study of the topic is discussed.

Keywords

• european social survey
• migrants
• dynamics
• influence factors
• attitude towards migrants
• regression with dummy variables