The Migrant Shuttle Van Drivers in the Perceptions of Chelyabinsk Residents

Abstract

The article examines the social perception of migrants employed in the area of public transportation, focusing specifically on the shuttle vans of Chelyabinsk. In this large industrial city, featuring a population of over a million people, shuttle vans operated by migrant workers have been dominating the transportation market within the last decade. As a result, there has surfaced a complex set of notions about “locals” and “aliens” in the urban space. This particular means of public transportation, being generally associated with speed and mobility, has been increasingly acquiring an additional symbolic significance, for shuttle vans have come to be seen and experienced as a setting where everyday contact with migrants takes place and where positive or negative perceptions of “outsiders” are formed and picked up. Indeed, the image of shuttle van stands for a manifestation of economic and cultural practices and reflects social relationships between city locals and migrants (predominantly of Central Asian origin). The article draws on ethnographic research including extensive interviews with drivers and passengers as well as media content analysis.