Migrant Women’s Economic Success in Russia: Objective Reality and Subjective Assessment

Evgenia Gorina, The University of Texas at Dallas

Whereas the prospects of better economic opportunities fuel international migration, these potential opportunities do not automatically translate into better earnings for migrants. Moreover, migrants’ assessments of their economic performance may vary depending on their pre-migration expectations or adjustments of these expectations in the host society. In this paper, we use data from a recent survey of working migrant women from three Central Asian countries and native working women conducted in three Russian cities to analyze the effects of human capital, legal status, social ties, and ethnocultural background on migrants’ earnings. In addition, we examine the association of these factors with two perceptual indicators of economic success – overall job satisfaction and perception of wage fairness. The preliminary results reveal considerable variations between migrants and non-migrants and within the migrant sub-sample. We seek to interpret the results within the socioeconomic, legal, and ethno-cultural context of migrants’ reception in the Russian Federation.