Gender Determined Trajectory of Migrants' Integration. Case Study of African Migrants in Moscow

Migration is a field widely explored in academic literature. It corresponds to significant intensification of migration and transmigration processes around the world in the last century. Being a mainstream, attention to this sphere however leave aside some borderline cases which are at the intersection of several fields of study. In this study we merge migration and gender, making inquiry into process of integration. Looking at the rarely observed case of African migrants, we concentrate our attention on those who came here with educational purposes getting MA degree in the HSE in Moscow. Exploring their trajectories of integration into receiving society we conducted qualitative study and run 10 in-depth interviews (2017-18) with the current educational migrants (4 female and 6 male students from Nigeria and Ghana) and analyzed it using biographic approach and elements of discourse analysis. The findings underline difference in female and male approaches to the process of integration and show how individuals constructs and reconstruct their strategies and transform expectations under influence of adaption to a new socioeconomic environment.