Migration as an indicator of people's social and psychological stability (as exemplified in the Pskov Region)

• Published in: Psychology in Russia : state of the art 2015-01, Vol.8 (1), p.61-73
• Main Authors: Kostromina, Svetlana N, Tsvetkova, Larisa A, Gurieva, Svetlana D, Anisimova, Tatyana V, Samuylova, Irina A, Konfisakhor, Aleksandr G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acculturation; Colleges & universities; Demography; Displaced persons; Focus groups; Migration; migration processes; potential migrants; reasons for migration; Social psychology; Society; Sociology; Teenagers; the Pskov Region
• ISSN: 2074-6857; 2307-2202
• DOI: 10.11621/pir.2015.0106

Years of social, economic, and political changes have resulted in intensive and extensive migration activity. The appearance of compelled and voluntary migrants has brought about the development of a new direction in social psychology: the psychology of migration. Many disciplines are connected with the study of migration, the problems of migrants, and adaptation processes. In the social-psychological literature, various models of adaptation to new conditions of a social-cultural environment are considered (I. Jasinskaja-Lahti, K. Liebkind, J. Berry; S.-K. Lee, J. Sobal, E. Frongillo). Various social-psychological features of migrants are studied: for example, ethnic identity, characteristics of psychological adaptation, emotional well-being, and mental health. In the Russian scientific literature the following problems are considered: emigrants' interactions with representatives of foreign cultures (N. S. Khrustaleva), degree of cultural similarity (T.G. Stefanenko), personal features of emigrants (S. H. Schwartz, E. Prince-Gibson), features of ethnic identity (G.U. Soldatova, S. D. Gurieva), and many others. In Russia, research regarding the influence of the social-cultural environment on processes of adaptation were begun only in 2004. The main objective of our study was to identify psychological mechanisms of migration flows (incoming and outgoing) as indicators of sociopolitical and psychological stability in the Pskov Region. Participants in the study were citizens permanently residing in the Pskov Region who by age and social characteristics represented the population structure of a part of that region. In total, 52 persons aged 17 to 69, with an average age of 42.3, participated. The technique used was focus groups. A content analysis was made of the answers received in the focus-group sessions. During these sessions, participants could freely share their views on questions asked by the facilitators who had a college-level psychological education. In each group, two facilitators worked cooperatively. One facilitator was in charge of group dynamics; the other was in charge of asking all the questions covered as well as of keeping track of all the substantial aspects of the conversation. This arrangement encouraged the participants to discuss issues of the region in an open manner. The findings allowed us to classify all the migrants and potential migrants in the Pskov Region according to their reasons and motives for migration. For example, in the P