Immigrants in Azerbaijan: Current situation and prospects of (re)integration policy

Abstract

Problems of immigrants in the post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the context of the issue of their integration in the host society till now has not been in the focus of researchers' attention. In the attempt to analyze this issue it makes sense to classify immigrants into three groups: 1) natives of Azerbaijan (re-emigrants) and their family members; 2) ethnic s from Georgia; 3) labor immigrants from different countries (EU, Turkey, India, Pakistan, etc.), who arrive to the country to look for a job or to open their own business. Conditional division into these three groups lets us describe major trends in this research area. Analysis suggested in this article is mostly based on a series of biographic interviews with immigrants from all three conditionally defined groups. The main research question in the author's opinion should be formulated as follows: what are the social resources and practices used by immigrants in Azerbaijan for integration in the host society, in the absence of any targeted state integration policy.