Abstract:

Non-institutional sources play a significant role in the processes of increasing the level of education during the life of a person in all countries. These sources cannot be disregarded, as education can take place beyond educational institutions (J. Heckman). An average citizen usually is not motivated to study the scientific materials on the problems being of interest for him or her. Online aggregators allow involving more people, interested in a certain problem, to the discussion of scientific-level materials. The text of the interview with the authors was published on the official web-site of Ural Federal University (Russia, Ekaterinburg). In the interview the authors shared the results of their study “The typology of citizens of a Russian megapolis according to their attitudes to migrants of different ethnicities”, published in the scientific journal “Universe of Russia” in 2018. The text of the interview was displayed in the group “Science in the Urals” through the Internet aggregator Yandex Zen. During 6 months (2019) the statistics of the Russian citizens getting acquainted with the text of the interview amounted to: 11 thousand views, 4.3 thousand finished readings; 4 min (average time of a finished reading); 675 comments. Besides, the interview contained an automatic link to the scientific article in the journal; the visitors of the group on Yandex Zen got acquainted with it as well. The authors of the article carried out the content analysis of the comments of Russia’s citizens, which demonstrated that the part of the Russians interested in this problem, shows, mainly, the negative attitude towards the migrants from Central Asia to Russia. As a context unit the statements of particular participants of the discussions were taken, while the mentions of the sub-categories in particular statements were taken as an observation unit. The sub-category “protection of migrants, including judging the local population for the negative attitude to migrants” was mentioned only in 14.3% of the statements. In contrast with it, other sub-categories turned out to be more significant. Thus, “accusing migrants of harmful actions and negative personal qualities” was mentioned in 34.8% of comments, and “assessing migrants as being unnecessary for Russia” — in 26.5%. The authors are sure that the significant part of the contradictions between the migrants and the local population are provoked by the low level of information of the local citizens and the migrants about each other, as well as the existing national prejudices. The rational basis of the rejection of the migrants by the local population is the discrepancy between the understanding of the benefit provided by the migrants and the damage caused by their presence in Russia, existing in people’s minds. Acquainting the Russians with the scientific article and the text of the interview with the scientists, who defend the necessity of the cultural convergence of the host community and the migrants, allows increasing the objective and scientific awareness of the Russians with relation to this problem. This speaks for the possibility of increasing the level of education of the Russian citizens by means of non-institutional sources.

Keywords:

Non-institutional sources, scientific article, attitude towards migrants, content analysis.