"Arguments and facts" about the "cultural invasion"

On June 15, 2005, the Moscow issue of "Arguments and Facts" published a selection of expert opinions on the problems of migration to Moscow. The author of the selection, Daria Martynkina, titled the material "Cultural Intrusion", anticipating the opinions of ethnologists, psychologists, and officials with her extremely, in our opinion, aggressive introduction.

The main journalistic message is "uninvited guests come to us with their own traditions": "The flow of visitors to the capital is growing. Including from the former CIS countries, from Asia, from the Caucasus. We think that they are guests. But the situation has changed a long time ago" . The journalist presents the manifestation of the cultural traditions of migrants of other ethnicities in the form of criminal incidents, the motivation of which was allegedly due to nothing more than “different culture”: “ A girl who caught a taxi at night could not imagine that the driver, due to her national temperament, would decide: my car, which means she is a woman of easy virtue . "

It should be noted that the comments of the experts published by the newspaper are mostly correct: "The national problem exists. It cannot be otherwise in a city where representatives of different nationalities and religions live. But this delicate issue is often turned into a reason for speculation. It is always easier to say, that other people are to blame for all the sins" (Timur Seliverstov, lawyer), "All these are myths. A person who commits an illegal act behaves not as a bearer of one or another ethno-cultural identity, but as a criminal" (Vasily Filippov, ethnologist).

But Moscow City Duma deputy Vasily Volkov (Motherland faction) willingly broadcasts all these myths: “More than half of all crimes in the capital are committed by out-of-town and illegal migrants - you can’t turn a blind eye to this. We are aliens for them, alien, walking wallets that need to be bred for money ... Visiting offenders for their numerous crimes must be punished to the fullest extent of the law " (Muscovite offenders, apparently, should not be punished - ed. ).

In our opinion, the editorial commentary is also controversial. The editors make the reservation: "We do not incite national hatred. We are talking about something that cannot be denied - about cultural differences . " However, in discussions about mutual respect, all the blame for the conflict-generating interethnic situation in the capital is laid on "newcomers", who "should understand our culture and behave according to our laws ... But ... they refuse to do this . "

We once again draw attention to the fact that experts are not inclined to reduce the social problem to the "different ethnicity" or "different culture" of immigrants. On the other hand, journalists and politicians are willing to exploit precisely the "national question".

Sources

• Martynkina Daria. cultural invasion // Arguments and facts - Moscow. 2005. June 15. (Quoted from the site "Peoples of Russia").