Page - 213 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

213 Svetlana Serebryakova Issues of Migration in Newspapers of the Stavropol’ Area Interethnic as well as interregional relationships have long been of great importance for the socio-economic and cultural live of the Stavropol’ area, which due to its geographical position was named gateway to the Caucasus in the 19th century already (the city was founded as a fortress in 1777). It was L.D. Trotsky who described the Caucasus as a gigantic ethnographic museum. This also applies to the North Caucasus with its numerous people of different cultures, races and religions living together on a relatively small territory. Here, economic and political conditions caused extensive migration after the breakup of the USSR. Geographically, the Stavropol’ area lies in the South of Russia (Southern Federal District), and belongs to the North Caucasian region. It is the most Southern Russian-speaking area, further South are – as part of the Russian Federation (RF) – the North Caucasian Republics of North Ossetia, Kabar- dino-Balkariya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachaevo-Cherkessiya, Chechnya, most of which share borders with the Stavropol’ Area. 2,723,900 people lived in the Stavropol’ area in 2004. Since 1989 the population increased by 13%. Looking at population statistics you find the Stavropol’ area on rank 16 in the Russian Federation, and on rank 3 in the Southern Federal District. Russians, Armenians, and Ukrainians have the largest share in the popu- lation that has long been consisting of more than 100 different nations (for comparison: in the Russian Federation you find 152 different nations). A stable immigration from North Caucasian regions is being named in unison as determining factor for the increasing multiethnicity of the population in the Stavropol’ area since the 1990s. The first inflow of migrants from the 1980s to the turn of the century resulted from the independence of the Caucasian Republics. People mainly came as Russian refugees from Trans- and North Caucasian Republics. Only during the last seven years migrants came as members of the North- and Trans-Caucasian nations, which lead to an increasingly diverse population in the Stavropol’ area. The Stavropol’ area today is among the top five administrative areas of the Russian Federation where among 1,000 inhabitants the population growth due to migration is more than twofold the average Russian population growth. The inflow of migrants contributes to an increase of real estate prices, a more aggravated competition on the labor market, decreasing standards of