Abstract:  
The subject area and the key goal of this research is associated with analyzing the problems of social perception of ethnic images in the context of establishing national identity of the population in the Russian bordering regions. The article describes the approaches towards analysis of the category of “image” within the humanitarian knowledge, as well as substantiated the difficulties in the use of classical theories of perception, formulated within the frameworks of general psychology studying the social images in sociological science. Examination of the images of “the other” that reflect the existing attitudes regarding the ethnic groups, required referring to the theories, which allow depicting the formation and content of the present in individual and public consciousness mental representations of social phenomena and objects.  The authors provide the results of psychosemantic experiment carried out in the two Russian regions, which is oriented towards studying the representations of image of “the other” in the consciousness of Russian population. The scientific novelty consists in determination of the characteristics that are of top priority in assessing the ethnic groups, but notable for bigger variability and differences in socio-demographic categories of the population. Besides the mainstream characteristics that define the perception of ethnic groups, the author revealed the secondary criteria that activate only the certain circumstances. The main conclusion consists in the fact that the identified differences are explained not just by the specificity of ethnic composition of the regions and activity of separate ethnic groups, but also justify the nature of interethnic relations, and reveal the potential sources of conflicts or prospects of ethnocultural cooperation.
 
 

Abstract: The goal of this article is the evaluation of the character and direction of interdependence of how the migration processes affect the state of public processes.  The research was conducted in the four neighboring regions of the Russian Federation in the form of a survey of the expert community representatives (scientific-pedagogical society, heads of public unions, representative of legislative and executive authorities, and representative of local self-governance). This research also carries out an expertise of the specificity of migration mobility of the bordering regions’ population. The analysis of data from the sociological examination of expert opinions with regards to directing influence of the bordering regions upon the specificity of the migration processes; the influence of the bordering position of one or another region upon the migration processes within it is being determined. As a rule, such regions often have a migration exchange with the neighboring states and regions, or they serve as transit territories. The description on the qualitative, as well as quantitative changes of the migration situation of the examined regions is considered as most meaningful.