Housing conditions of immigrants in the context of integration: socio-economic, legal and cultural aspects

The article examines the housing conditions of migrants as a multifaceted factor of socio-economic, legal, cultural (cultural-identification) integration. Using data from sociological surveys, interviews with experts and migrants, and experimental study, the author analyzes how housing and living conditions of labor migrants in Russia are related to various aspects of their integration into the host Russian society. The article contains three main parts relating to the three main areas of integration. The section on the socio-economic sphere analyzes the impact of income and professional level of migrants on their housing conditions. The section on the legal sphere describes the main mechanisms of migration registration of foreign citizens, as well as the discrepancies between the Russian legislation and actual registration practice. It is shown that migration registration is the main factor in the lack of documentation of migrants. The last section links housing conditions with the cultural integration of migrants. It shows how access to housing is associated with ethnic selectivity and xenophobia of Russians, as well as interethnic trust in «their own» among migrants. The article analyzes how housing influences reproduction of the native cultural environment, belonging to the host society and distancing between different categories of migrants. The author comes to the conclusion that housing as a factor of integration is at the junction of all the main spheres of this complex process, and such actualization and problematization of a separate factor of integration contributes to the discussion about the indicators of migrant integration. The study demonstrates how different indicators of integration are interconnected and interpenetrating. The extensive influence of housing conditions on all major areas of migrant integration should be taken into account by responsible bodies when planning measures to adapt foreign citizens to Russian society, and include measures not only to create a fund of affordable rental housing for the category of temporary labor migrants, but also legal and anti-discrimination initiatives for a wide range of foreign citizens.