Abstract

Background. Russia ranks fourth in the World in terms of the influx of migrants (of which 12 million currently live within the country). At the same time, the factors accompanying the process of acculturation can be quite different and lead to contradictions and conflicts between the groups. As far as migrants are concerned, the study of mediative role of the perceived threat in formation of acculturation expectation sremains an under researched topic in cross-cultural psychology.

Objective. The study is aimed at determining whether the perceived threat from migrants has a mediating effect on the relationship between social capital and the acculturation expectations of the host population towards migrants.

Design. The study was carried out in an online format by a questionnaire given to young adults living in Moscow (N = 214). The participants answered the questions that determined the level of trust, ethnic tolerance, perceived threat, and acculturation expectations.

Results. The results of the study revealed that the perceived threat (especially the cultural one) turned out to be a mediator of the connection between ethnic tolerance and acculturation expectations of “melting pot” and “exclusion”. In case of connection of the indicators of trust and ethnic tolerance with “segregation”, only the perceived physical threat played a mediating role. The role of ethnic tolerance has been confirmed in the above three acculturation expectations, while trust turned out to be significant only in the “segregated” models. The meditative role of the perceived threat in the relationship between the three indicators of social capital and the acculturation expectation of “multiculturalism” has been completely refuted.

Conclusion. The results of the research make it possible to determine the role of the perceived threat in acculturation attitudes and expectations towards migrants. The main limitation of this study is the fact that it took place only in Moscow. In the nearest future, it is planned to compare the results obtained in Russia from Russian-speaking test-groups with the results of other groups in other countries.