Russian Immigrant Diaspora in Turkey: Language Use, Preference and Attitudes

Although Turkey houses various immigrant groups, still not much is known about them. To this end, this study aims to initiate a report of a particular group of immigrants residing in Turkey. Specifically, we focus on the language use, preference and attitudes of Russian immigrants in Turkey in the belief that communication processes lie at the heart of the acculturation processes and reflect the degree to which immigrants adapt to the host society. The data have been collected from 109 Russians permanently residing in Turkey through a questionnaire and interviews. Our findings suggest that the Russian diaspora reveals a pure sample of integration to the Turkish host society and they can be defined as bi-dominant, that is, capable of using the two languages jointly depending on their needs and communicational contexts, and as bi-cultural, that is, acculturated into the Turkish host culture while at the same time retaining their Russian roots.