Does the Social Group'Immigrants' exist in Khabarovsk Region? (Sketches on the Immigration Mythology)

Abstract

This article analyzes two images of “immigrants” as a social group based on empirical material collected in Khabarovsk Region. The first arises from official statistics and influences the decisions and actions of regional authorities and manifests itself in the public discourse of the authorities. The second, originating from the discourse about the “yellow peril”, constructs the image of  “immigrants” through a set of characteristics (having nothing to do with either citizenship or residence time in the region), the leading of which is appearance. In the second image, “immigrants” personify “strangers” who oppose and threaten the host community. This image is most commonly represented in the media and partly in everyday discourse. For all the intensity of the polemics unfolding in the media about immigrants, both discourses refer to a simulacrum, the denotation of which, even if it existed, is now disappearing. Less and less are the “New Far Easterners” constituting an internally organized community or social group, differing in terms of ethnicity or religion, place of origin, push factors, educational level, professional affiliation, social strategies, or cultural identity, etc. Not all of them are oriented towards communication within the ethnic community. The authors argue that the Far East was originally built as an immigrant region, where immigration has always been a more significant factor determining the demographic situation than natural increase. But immigration flows have gradually petered out, turning into traces that coexist in society. The immigration flow from Central Asia and, to a lesser extent, Transcaucasia, is increasingly becoming traces, distributed on different levels of the social hierarchy, in different types of activities, and gradually dissolving into the regional community.