ABSTRACT
For the majority of the population of the former Soviet Union, the postSoviet period has been one in which they have suffered a severe drop in living standards. This drop has been caused by a fall in real incomes,1 frequent and long wage arrears, unemployment, short-time working, temporary lay-offs and enforced ‘holiday’, and inflation. The social and economic difficulties faced by refugees and forced migrants settling in Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union are thus far from peculiar. However, they have been intensified by: the loss of housing, property and savings; the relocation for many from urban to rural areas which exacerbates de-skilling processes;2 and the loss of extended family and acquaintance networks which are central to survival strategies in post-Soviet Russia. Moreover, material hardship is made more difficult to bear by the cultural discomfort experienced upon return to Russia and, in some instances, hostility from local residents who may associate the arrival of refugees and forced migrants with the decline in their own living standard. This chapter draws predominantly on data from the author’s own fieldwork3 to explore: obstacles to the socio-economic integration of forced migrants and refugees; and the strategies adopted by migrants to survive the socio-economic dislocation they experience in both the short and the long term. Throughout the chapter, the difference in experience among different sections of the migrant community will be highlighted. In particular the experiences of men and women will be contrasted and the peculiar problems faced by those settling in rural locations will be explored.
