ИСТИНА

The study reveals main differences and similarities in dealing with socio-economic and cultural problems of adaptation among local forced migrants, mostly representatives of northern indigenous groups, and newcomers, mostly labor migrants, from other regions. It shows how different cultural interpretations and social practices are used in order to better adapt to a new social landscape, and how these strategies interact – in some cases leading to competition, tensions and hostility and always-entailing transformation of existing hierarchies and configurations of relations – under seemingly equal initial social and economic conditions. The research is based on contemporary ethnographic data gathered in Kemerovo region and on Sakhalin.