Introduction

The empirical project which forms the basis of Part II of the book was conducted between July and December 1994. It applied a combination of qualitative research methods to gather data among migrant communities in two regions of Russia. Data were gathered from a total of 195 respondents, 144 of whom were settled in four rural settlements in the Orel region, Central Russia, the remaining 51 of whom were resident in the city of Ul’ianovsk in the Middle Volga region of Russia.