Adaptation and Integration of International Migrants: Theoretical and Methodological Problems

Received 28.05.2020. Adaptation and integration of migrants are the final stages of the migration process, the quality of which largely determines the final result: either serious socio-economic problems will arise that threaten the security of host societies, or migration will contribute to the socio-economic development of host countries. The dependence of migration results on the final stages of migration processes necessitates the implementation of effective adaptation and integration policies by states. In the scientific literature, the terms “adaptation” and “integration” are most often used as synonyms. However, this approach makes it difficult to develop common ideas about the essence of the processes of adaptation and integration of migrants. All this gave rise to theoretical uncertainty regarding these phenomena, led to scientific disagreements that impeded the formation of an effective state policy of adaptation and integration, and complicated the development of scientifically-based programs for solving acute problems in the migration sphere. And as a consequence of this, the problem of a separate theoretical understanding of the above concepts has become actualized. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate the essence and content of the processes of adaptation and integration of migrants, the state policy of adaptation and the state policy of integration, and thereupon to create a scientific methodological base intended for future use in the state migration policy of the Russian Federation and other countries. The authors set the tasks: to analyze theoretical approaches to the study of the phenomena of adaptation and integration of migrants; to formulate the concepts of “adaptation”, “integration”, “state policy of adaptation”, “state policy of integration”; to present the authors’ vision of these phenomena and identify the relationship between them. Acknowledgements. The article has been supported by the “RUDN University Program 5–100”.