TSU anthropologists study migrant life peculiarities in Tomsk, Irkutsk

TOMSK, May 16 – RIA Tomsk. Anthropologists of Tomsk State University (TSU) will conduct a large-scale migration study in Tomsk and Irkutsk which will improve the policy migrants adaptation and integration at the regional and federal level; the scientists will study the places of settlement of visitors, the press service of the university said on Wednesday.

It is specified that scientists will conduct a study in Tomsk and Irkutsk, they will identify patterns of migrant resettlement and determine whether they can be a source of conflict because of the "distribution" of urban space. In addition, they will study how the authorities and the media resolve and interpret such situations. The study is supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) and will last until the end of 2020.

"Quite often citizens see in labor migrants only “threat", "strangers" .., who come in large numbers and take away jobs from natives. Meanwhile, in Tomsk migrants come mainly from post-Soviet states ... and make an important contribution to the economy of the region ... We will describe how migrants master the urban infrastructure and create their own", – the scientific project leader Irina Nam is quoted in the message.

It is specified that in order to obtain a reliable picture, the research will be built on a series of quality interviews and included (participating) observation. Also, scientists will study media materials, official documents, statistics. They will create a map of the city, where they will mark the infrastructure elements used by visitors. Then the relationship between them will be determined.

"We find out whether the elements of the emigrant infrastructure are the system with internal connections, how they interact with citizens and power structures, and the results will allow us to offer adequate approaches to the formation of migration policy", – Nam added.

It is noted that migration processes at TSU have been studied for more than 20 years, and since 2017 a master's program "Migration Studies" was opened at the university, which has no analogues in the Russian Federation.