ADAPTATION OF MIGRANTS FROM CENTRAL ASIA IN THE MOSCOW REGION OF RUSSIA: THE RELATIONSHIPS OF ACCULTURATION STRATEGIES, SOCIAL IDENTITY AND WELLBEING

According to UN estimates for 2015, the Russian Federation is the world's third-leading country in terms of the number of immigrants, after the US and Germany. Central Asian countries account for most of the inflow of migration. The purpose is to investigate the relationships between the strategies of acculturation, ethnic, religious, country of origin, Russian national identities and the sociocultural and psychological adaptation of migrants from Central Asia in Moscow region. Representatives of two ethnic groups - 105 Uzbeks and 96 Tajiks (N = 201) - participated in the research. The methods of the study include the scales of acculturation strategies, social identities, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and sociocultural adaptation from the MIRIPS (Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies) project questionnaire. The results of path analysis conducted in AMOS program showed that integration and assimilation are the best strategies for migrants from Central Asia: integration predicts self-esteem; assimilation predicts their life satisfaction. The preference for integration strategy is positively associated with ethnic and Russian national identities, the preference for assimilation strategy is positively associated with Russian national and religious identities and negatively associated with ethnic identity. Separation and marginalization do not contribute to self-esteem of the migrants. Marginalization is positively related to religious identity; separation is positively related to ethnic, religious, country of origin identities, and negatively related to Russian national identity. Also we found that social identities had a mediational role in the influence of acculturation strategies on the adaptation of migrants from Central Asia in the Moscow region.