Ilja Belobragin, general managing partner at Move To Russia, a company which helps foreigners relocate to Russia, says something he frequently hears from his clients is that they “don’t recognise the community around me anymore”.
Some prospective migrants complain about high immigration in their own countries or what they see as declining living standards, he says.
Let’s break this down: The people say they “don’t recognise the community around [them] anymore” because of “high immigration”, so they decide to become an immigrant surrounded by people of a different nationality than them.
As I see it, this is for one specific reason only: I don’t believe it’s the different cultural values from immigration that bothers them (they are literally moving into a wholly foreign culture; although I’m sure the Orthodox church gives some perverse appeal), but I believe they are bothered by ethnicity/skin colour. I believe these people are racists more than they are xenophobes.
I believe, for these people, Russia is a better alternative only because they have a certain perception of white-skinned Russians. I don’t think these people are aware of places like Tuva, or Yakutia, or Chechnya - and I don’t think they would ever visit those places. To say their quiet part out loud, I think these “conservatives” are just people who are white supremacists, moving because it’s a “white country” in their eyes, and thinking all white people have some shared essence. This is how they can justify to themselves being a foreigner in a foreign land. How else could they justify it to themselves?
Let’s break this down: The people say they “don’t recognise the community around [them] anymore” because of “high immigration”, so they decide to become an immigrant surrounded by people of a different nationality than them.
As I see it, this is for one specific reason only: I don’t believe it’s the different cultural values from immigration that bothers them (they are literally moving into a wholly foreign culture; although I’m sure the Orthodox church gives some perverse appeal), but I believe they are bothered by ethnicity/skin colour. I believe these people are racists more than they are xenophobes.
I believe, for these people, Russia is a better alternative only because they have a certain perception of white-skinned Russians. I don’t think these people are aware of places like Tuva, or Yakutia, or Chechnya - and I don’t think they would ever visit those places. To say their quiet part out loud, I think these “conservatives” are just people who are white supremacists, moving because it’s a “white country” in their eyes, and thinking all white people have some shared essence. This is how they can justify to themselves being a foreigner in a foreign land. How else could they justify it to themselves?