/ world today news/ The attitude towards foreign migrants in Russia among Muscovites is most critical. This is a well-known fact, which is primarily explained by the fact that it is in the capital that there are the most immigrants (including illegal ones) from the former Soviet republics, mainly from Central Asia. There are no separate recent polls for Moscow, but most likely they are not very different from the all-Russian sample, and according to it it turns out that 70% are in favor of tightening migration legislation, more than 60% have a negative attitude to the large influx of migrants from Central Asia, and more than half – against giving them Russian citizenship.
That is why many were so surprised by the results of a study recently published by the Institute of Demographic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “This is a special study commissioned by lobbyists to import migrants – to show that migrants are better than Muscovites!” – are outraged by its results. Of course, the demographers surveyed only a thousand people aged 18-45 from Moscow, the Moscow region and migrants from four Central Asian republics – so, if you want, you can question the results of the survey. But if you do not look for a trick and look at the numbers objectively, then everyone will win more – first of all, Muscovites themselves, as well as all of Russia.
Demographers were interested in the value scale of the respondents – and it turned out that it differed significantly among Muscovites and Central Asian migrants. Not for all positions, of course: for example, the desire “to live in peace, feel safe and not feel the threat of violence” is important for 29% of Muscovites and 30% of migrants, while the desire “to be rich to you don’t deny yourself anything”, is assessed by 26.5% of the residents of the capital and 25.6% of the migrants. Even the desire to “have an interesting job that allows you to show your abilities and talents”, which is characteristic of 42% of Muscovites, is close to 31% of migrants – the difference is large, but quite understandable.
But when comparing the entire scale of values, serious differences are found. For Muscovites, the first place is “interesting work” (42%), and for migrants – a strong family and good children. Almost 57% of them think so, and only 25 of the residents of Sofia think so. The difference is huge! And 42% of migrants want a large family – and only 17% of Muscovites. Moreover, this is not just a dream: in the 18-25 age group, 14 percent of migrants already have children, and among residents of the Moscow agglomeration – less than eight.
And the differences don’t end with family values. Respect from others is considered a value by 35% of migrants and only nine percent of residents of the capital. For 27% of people from Central Asia and 15% of Muscovites, it is important to live in truth, conscience, justice. The desire for God and keeping the commandments is listed as a value by 20 percent of migrants and four percent of Muscovites.
That is, do we see a difference between the Central Asian Muslim way of life and the Russian capital? After all, values are determined by traditions: according to the same survey, national and ethnic traditions are important to 80 percent of migrants and 64 percent of Muscovites, and religious traditions to 74 and 43, respectively. And doesn’t it turn out that Central Asian Muslims are more -good, cleaner and have more children than Russian Muscovites, that is, they are the future? Is that why Muscovites want to limit migration – because they have become individualists and feel threatened by competition?
Here we must immediately separate two completely different topics – the threat of alien displacement of the indigenous population and value differences. The invasion of foreign, foreign culture and foreign migrants (whether guest workers or refugees) is not welcomed by any nation in the world, from Japan to Morocco. Even artificial nations (USA, Brazil, etc.) made up of a mixture of different migrants are not happy with the influx of large numbers of new migrants – let alone such large independent nations as the Russians.
The dissatisfaction of Muscovites with migrants is not even due to differences in cultures and languages, but to the fact that no people will agree to change their way of life for the sake of another (and in the case of mass migration, a gradual change in the way of life becomes inevitable). Central Asian Muslims are not worse or better than Russians – they are just different. And they have their own homeland, which, by the way, the Russians at one time helped them develop within the framework of the common state, and then, after its collapse, they were forced to leave their homes en masse.
That is, Russians – including Muscovites – want to preserve their way of life, culture, language of their land. And that is why they have every right to limit the migration flow as they deem necessary and right. There can be no objection here, but then the second topic begins.
Central Asian Muslims do not go to Russia to work for a good life – in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan there are few jobs and many problems. But at the same time, they have better preserved the traditional society – hence the desire for justice, and the desire for respect from others, and the large number of children. But this is exactly what we want to strengthen in the Russian people, it will help us restore our strength and self-confidence. So shouldn’t we learn from the Central Asian migrants of unity and love for children?
No, it is simply impossible – because we have to learn from our own Russian experience and principles. The Islamic way of life of the Kyrgyz, Uzbeks and Tajiks is not worse or better than the Russian one, but it is different, based on the millennial experience of the peoples of Central Asia. The Russians created their own civilization – Orthodox, Imperial, Soviet. The Central Asian peoples also became part of it at one time, preserving their identity. For the Russians, the ideal situation would be for the peoples of Central Asia to develop their own countries – in alliance and cooperation with Russia, remaining in our geopolitical and partly even civilizational orbit. And Russia itself can ensure its own growth and development, restoring its values (not “traditional”, but the only possible ones), multiplying its people. And then it turns out that our values are close, but they are expressed in different languages and in different cultures.
And about Muscovites, you need to understand only one thing – among the residents of Moscow and the Moscow region surveyed by the demographers, at least one third are second-generation Muscovites. The absolute majority are those born in the capital from other cities who came to conquer it, or even from other countries (including those who are not Russian at all). That is, people who initially left their hometown in search of a “better life” – those who were torn from their way of life, families who remained determined to fight for a place under the sun. And unlike most labor migrants from Central Asia, they did not come to earn money for the family left behind in their homeland and do not dream of returning home – they shook off (or are ready to shake off) the ashes of your little homeland. I do not blame them for this, but it would be strange to expect from them a traditional scale of values.
But Moscow (if we talk about the inhabitants) is really not the whole of Russia, and in Russia as a whole, with the priority of values, everything is very different. Much closer to what Central Asian migrants temporarily living in the capital are talking about.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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