Metaphoric representation of the identity crisis in German social discourse on post-Soviet migrants in Germany

The article concerns the ways of metaphoric representation of the identity crisis in German social discourse on post-Soviet migrants in Germany. In the contemporary West European society, the growth of migration processes and socio-cultural transformations makes the notion of migrants' identity crisis highly relevant. The problem has acquired particular topicality in Germany during the recent years in terms of the prospects and challenges to successful integration of representatives of different migration streams. This article analyzes cognitive metaphors of the identity crisis among post-Soviet migrants. It studies in detail the historical and legislative preconditions that have led to the formation of this migrant community, as well as the specific features characterizing the development of this crises and how it is experienced within the community. The conclusion is made that the language follow-through and reflection on the migration processes are inevitably accompanied by the emergence and actualization of spatial metaphoric models connected with spatial boundaries and the location and movement of migration subjects within those boundaries. A metaphor is viewed in the framework of cognitive metaphor theory as a universal cognitive mechanism and an integral part of human conceptual and verbal systems involved in the perception and categorization activity. In the process of their unfolding, basic spatial metaphors acquire a well-developed network of corresponding secondary metaphoric nominations. The functioning of participial constructions has a special meaning in the composition of basic spatial metaphors: they emphasize the processual character of migration, the dynamics of migrants' relocation and the manifestations of the identity crisis in the context of heterogeneous migration society.