Measurements of the Russian identity: Sociological assessments and humanitarian expertise

Within the framework of the existing scientific approaches, the authors consider the process of ethnization of the Russians’ mass consciousness under the expanding internal and external labor migration in Russia. The article presents the results of the situational analysis and humanitarian expertise of the set of key challenges determined by the migration. Based on the statistics, opinion polls data and expert assessments the article describes the empirical model of the identity of ethnic Russian population of Moscow and the Moscow region as the major centers of attraction for international migrants. The comprehensive analysis of the issues and controversies of the labor migration in the region and relationships of ethnic groups living in the region is preceded by the description of the identity of native inhabitants of the region as perceived by the ethnic Russian population. To measure the identity for the axiological ranking the authors use a number of relatively independent variables besides ethnic (national) identity: religious involvement, civilizational orientation, cultural, professional, territorial and other important features. Thus, the authors present a multi-dimensional space of identity, in which each dimension has its specific meaning for personal self-identification and its own scale for assessing particular attributes.