PERSPECTIVES FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF CULTURAL TRAUMA IN THE LIGHT OF AN EXISTENTIAL APPROACH USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE ADAPTATION PROCESS OF MIGRANTS TO THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CONDITIONS OF A SMALL TOWN (USING THE EXAMPLE OF CHITA IN THE TRANSBAIKALIA REGION)

Today’s social agenda emphasizes the need to pay special attention to the processes accompanying migration to the Transbaikal region. In the past, the low population density of the region, combined with unfavorable socioeconomic and climatic conditions that gave additional impetus to the decline of the indigenous population, contributed to an increase in migration flows from Central Asia. The changing quantitative ratio of the share of migrants in the urban population determines the reshaping of social institutions to meet their needs, and also provides an opportunity to study phenomena that have arisen as a result of migration. The socio-cultural adaptation of migrants implies a formal insertion into the receiving party’s cultural context and a psychological restructuring to meet the demands of a new cultural space. The existential experience migrants undergo when they realize the inapplicability of their previous mental attitudes to a new situation is associated with a significant stressor, which in this study is viewed through the prism of cultural trauma. At the same time, success in coping with trauma depends largely on factors such as the presence of a “migration background”, the age of migration, and the specifics of experiences in relationships with representatives of the host society.

cultural trauma, migrants, frustration, existential approach, identity, self-concept