Projective Techniques as a Method of Study of Labour Migrants’ Social Identity

In this paper we will try to work out a methodology that would allow to study social identity of migrant workers in Moscow as widely as possible and explore all its components. Our solution is to combine individual depth interviews with several projective techniques. We suppose that due to the fact that projective techniques are addressed to frequently unreflected deep mental structures, but also creatively and playfully wrapped, informants will be able to disclose more details about their social identity faster and less oppressive. The qualitative method of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, in addition, will provide an assistance in further results’ interpreting. We will test this methodology in 10 interviews with women from Central Asia, who came to Moscow for work and have lived here from 1 to 3 years. First of all, we explain the idea of the research in a bit more detail, and highlight its main concepts and limitations. The main part of this paper is devoted to the overview and brief analysis of sociological theory in the field of social identity, methodological studies on projective techniques, as well as empirical researches on similar topics. Next, we proceed to a detailed description of the methodology and discuss the possible results of the research.