‘You Are Not Needed Here’: Sub-Saharan African Migrants’ Discriminatory Experiences of the Socio-Economic Environments in Russia

January 28, 2021, a graduate student, assistant researcher at ILSUR, Isaak Olumaeva Oni, presented the results of his research on aspects of African migration to Russia.

This study examined the experiences of Sub-Saharan African migrants within the social space, particularly, the aspects of socialization and getting housing; and also, the economic space of Moscow. This is an important aspect of African migration to Russia. Extensively, the subject of discrimination is the focus of the research. The author tries to look at the subtleness of the discrimination experienced by sub-Saharan African migrants. In-depth interviews and informal conversations were used to get views of the participants regarding the focus of the study. The author used the concept of intersectionality to investigate this aspect of African migrants as it relates to race and gender. The discussants Aadne Aasland and Anna Cieślewska acknowledged the use of this concept as it aptly explains the focus of the research. They, however, consider the different arenas of the study too broad and should not to be compressed together. They suggested an individual study of the various arenas that the paper investigated. Along with this, they suggested that since there’s an increase in the presence of African migrants in Russia, their coping strategies could also be examined. In addition, more information on the respondents is needed for comparing of the discrimination experienced by African migrants living in Moscow.