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We treat foreign cultures with respect and interest, we condemn skinheads, and nationalism causes rejection in us. And yet, when buying food at the market or hailing a taxi on the street, we would rather deal with our fellow countrymen than with visitors. What is the reason for our antipathy towards them, what is its real background and is it possible to overcome our irritation? We asked psychologists to answer these questions.
“We are looking for the culprit of our problems and are afraid of competition”
Galina Soldatova, Professor of the Department of Personality Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov
10-15% of migrants is the critical barrier beyond which tension and conflict inevitably arise in any community of people (whether residents of the same house or employees of the same company). A person is more likely to encounter strangers: incomprehensible traditions and unfamiliar speech violate the usual order of things; we feel a threat to our identity, the need to change something in ourselves and our lives, and this provokes irritation. In addition, migrants are in a hurry to live: to get a job, to buy an apartment; they are willing to work for less pay, they are active and enterprising. We think that they came for a while, to earn some money, but they came to live.
Read more:
- Most of us are covert racists
“Fear of others provokes aggression”
Konstantinov Vsevolod Valentinovich, Head of the Department of General Psychology, PSU
Many Russians live with a sense of dissatisfaction with their lives, feel discomfort and constant anxiety. But a person cannot live in constant fear and projects it onto other people. First of all, on socially vulnerable groups, including visitors. Anger allows us to deal with our fears. The same process occurs on the part of migrants. Life in a new place, the reactions of people around scare and push to preserve their traditions, their identity. That is why migrants settle compactly, retain their language, maintain traditions that the indigenous population perceives as a threat. It turns out a vicious circle: we are annoyed with them, and they are with us. Tolerance and prudence make a difference: they allow us to be ourselves and recognize the right of migrants to be different.