Marriage Choice of Immigrants in Russia: Main Characteristics and Relationship with Integration

Marriage Choice of Immigrants in Russia:
Main Characteristics and Relationship with Integration


Endryushko A.A

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia anna.endryushko@mail.ru

ID of the Article: 9685

Rubric: Demography. Migration

For citation:

Endryushko A.A Marriage Choice of Immigrants in Russia: Main Characteristics and Relationship with Integration. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 7. P. 17-30


 Full Text.


Abstract

The article shows features of the choice of spouses by immigrants from the CIS, Ukraine and Georgia in Russia, as well as the relationship of marriage choice to integration of foreign citizens in Russian society. The empirical basis of the study was sociological surveys of immigrants conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2017 and 2020 (8577 and 700 respondents respectively). The preservation of the ethno-cultural distance between immigrants and the host Russian society is shown, since the “importing” of spouses from their homeland remains overwhelming. During the study, two groups of respondents were identified: whose spouses have and do not have Russian citizenship. The author analyzes the integration parameters of these groups and comes to the conclusion that the former are better integrated into the host society. Particular attention is paid to cultural integration. It is shown that the choice of Russians as spouses contributes to the formation of interethnic trust and a sense of belonging to the host society (all-Russian identity) among immigrants, as well as more modernized values, such as gender equality and personal freedom. At the same time, it is concluded that mixed marriages of immigrants and Russians are not associated with cultural assimilation, they should be considered as a process of counter movement of their cultures.


Keywords
mixed marriages; cultural integration; immigrant values; ethnocultural distance; ethnic identity

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Content No 7, 2023