Rural inhabitants of the Chechen Republic on Moscow and Muscovites

Abstract

Sociological studies illustrate that the attitudes of a large part of the Russian population towards citizens coming from the North Caucasus republics (in particular, the Chechnya Republic) are ambiguous. Chechen natives are often seen as a menace or potential law-breakers and perceived as ‘aliens’. At the same time, little research is devoted to the attitudes of the Chechen descents expressed towards the inhabitants of the regions they head to work. The article explores the views of the Chechen rural inhabitants about Moscow and Moscow residents and the impact of migration experience on these views. The author also describes the discrepancies between men and women and people of different age groups in their perceptions of the capital and metropolitan inhabitants. The discrepancies result from inconsistencies between gender order and age stratification in the host and origin communities.A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, namely in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey conducted in three rural-type settlements in Chechnya, was used in the study.