Ledeneva V.Yu. Forms and Models of Social Adaptation and Integration of Migrants

Abstract: The choice of the topic of the present article is defined by the contradiction between the growing scale of conflicts between the migrants and the local population and the insufficient level of regulatory pressure on the processes of adaptation and integration of migrants by state and municipal authorities. Solving this contradiction is of high importance for the state and requires scientifically justified modernisation of migration policy regarding adaptation and integration of migrants.  The issue of adaptation and integration of migrants in a host community has not been theoretically realised to the full extent yet, the scientists have not come to a point regarding the notions of adaptation and integration of migrants by now. As a result, methodological difficulties emerge when elaborating legal regulatory mechanisms.  The author uses sociological methods (sociological surveys, expert interviews, content analysis of documents), as well as processing and analysis of empirical data (grouping, empirical classification, determinative and factor analysis), together with examination of the concepts of social environment, socio-cultural systems and migrant communities, and the processes modelling method. The scientific results constitute the elaboration of a new stage model of the migration process, differentiated by the migrant categories (a three-stage model for the returning migrants and a four-stage model for non-returning migrants).  The article formulates the criteria of the completeness of the processes of migrant adaptation and integration and defines the temporal frames of migrants' integration. The results can be used as a methodological basis for further scientific research on the issues of adaptation and integration of migrants, as well as serve as a tutorial on modernisation of migration policy for the state municipal authorities. The elaborated conceptual basic model of social integration of migrants allows to systematise adaptational resources of both migrants and social institutions that participate in the process.

Keywords: