Political Identity of Russians and their Emigration Intentions

The literature on ideological migration implies people might migrate to the communities where they can be surrounded by similar others to satisfy the fundamental need to belong. As political identity should be considered within the social context of the country, current research is aimed to take into account different angles of Russian’s political identity and its influence on their intentions to emigrate. In the present study, it was hypothesized that government trust, political engagement, ideology and national attachment can contribute to emigration intentions of Russians, mediated by the sense of belonging. In Study 1 (N=1584) political engagement and government trust were tested as predictors of emigration intentions based on the existing dataset from the “Life in Transition 2” survey. The analysis revealed that politically engaged Russians were more likely to show intentions to emigrate. In Study 2 (N=363) government trust, political engagement, ideology, and national attachment were tested as predictors of emigration, mediated by the sense of belonging. The main analysis revealed that the relationship between government trust, national attachment, ideology and emigration intentions was mediated by the sense of belonging. These findings support and expand the ideological migration hypothesis and suggest that intentions to emigrate from Russia may be driven by the desire to live in communities with the similar ideologies to satisfy their need to belong.