The article analyzes the influence of family attitudes on perceptions, choice of social practices, and self-awareness of female migrant workers. The goal of the research was to conceptualize the transformation process of everyday practices of female migrant workers in family and marriage relations. The most important theoretical and methodological concept in this social knowledge area from the authors’ perspective is phenomenology and the theory of everyday life. In sociology, it serves as the basis for a qualitative approach to the study (understanding) of reality. Studies of everyday life with the use qualitative methodology allow one to understand the role of family in the lives of modern migrant women. Based on the research task specifics, the authors chose a focused interview method as the major data collection technique, its principle being a prior acquaintance of a respondent with the subject matter and the assumption that they are competent in terms of its semantic component. The empirical base of the research is premised on the perceptions of female migrant workers of their role in their everyday life.

1. http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp 173 editor@iaeme.com
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2018, pp. 173–179, Article ID: IJCIET_09_11_017
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=9&IType=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
FAMILY IN THE STRUCTURE OF LIFE
VALUES OF FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS
(AS EXEMPLIFIED BY EMPIRICAL
RESEARCH)
Anna V. Vinokurova, Anna Yu. Ardalyanova, Elena Yu. Kostina, Nadezhda A. Orlova
and Ilya V. Kupryashkin
Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russian Federation
ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the influence of family attitudes on perceptions, choice of
social practices, and self-awareness of female migrant workers. The goal of the
research was to conceptualize the transformation process of everyday practices of
female migrant workers in family and marriage relations. The most important
theoretical and methodological concept in this social knowledge area from the
authors’ perspective is phenomenology and the theory of everyday life. In sociology, it
serves as the basis for a qualitative approach to the study (understanding) of reality.
Studies of everyday life with the use qualitative methodology allow one to understand
the role of family in the lives of modern migrant women. Based on the research task
specifics, the authors chose a focused interview method as the major data collection
technique, its principle being a prior acquaintance of a respondent with the subject
matter and the assumption that they are competent in terms of its semantic
component. The empirical base of the research is premised on the perceptions of
female migrant workers of their role in their everyday life.
Keywords: Social Transformation, Migration Processes, Female Migrant Workers,
People of Central Asian Descent, Everyday Life, Family, Family Values.
Cite this Article: Anna V. Vinokurova, Anna Yu. Ardalyanova, Elena Yu. Kostina,
Nadezhda A. Orlova and Ilya V. Kupryashkin, Family in the Structure of Life Values
of Female Migrant Workers (As Exemplified by Empirical Research), International
Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 9(11), 2018, pp. 173–179.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=9&IType=11

2. Family in the Structure of Life Values of Female Migrant Workers (As Exemplified by Empirical
Research)
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp 174 editor@iaeme.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Everyday life as a social practice is the background of all interactions in society, thereby
acting as an inexhaustible source of knowledge. It gets ingrained in social life and
encompasses the family sphere. Using the phenomenology terms [1], it can be assumed that a
social reality is constructed, including “the family” and “the everyday” as parts of the whole.
In the process of their interaction, new social narratives are born to act as self-organization
instruments and to contribute to the social activity of individuals and entire social groups.
Female migrant workers and their families whose everyday life has peculiar features are one
of such groups.
Analyzing migration processes and the behavior patterns of migrant workers, the authors,
like many other domestic and foreign authors, note a number of problems related to their
inclusion in the cultural environment of a host community. These include poor rapport with
local population, professional identity challenges, substandard living conditions, formation of
negative emotional states (anxiety, stress, aggressiveness, fears), difficulties in a certain part
of migrants in mastering the Russian language, culture, and Russian customs [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10].
The problem of integration into the host community is highly relevant for migrant
workers, since the new cultural context that the migrants enter results in changes experienced
in the adaptation process. This process efficiency and positive development depends on a
variety of external and internal factors, including family relationships. It is the family that
resists social tension and is a consolidating center for an individual. In terms of adaptation at
a new place of residence, the family remains the sphere to satisfy the needs for
communication and emotional contact, recognition and self-realization for an individual.
Therefore, the family retains its high social and personal relevance for migrant workers.
Furthermore, while the labor migration used to have a predominantly “male face”, now it is
increasingly acquiring “female contours”.
By shifting their place of residence, migrants rearrange their life space and significantly
expand the boundaries of their everyday life. The most important theoretical and
methodological concept of this study is phenomenology and the theory of everyday life. In
sociology, it serves as the basis for a qualitative approach to the study (understanding) of
reality. Scientists also define everyday life as the basic prerequisite for research in social
sciences [11]. The fundamental premise herein is the idea of social everyday life as a
“supreme reality” associated with experiencing the objective existence of things and
phenomena. In the life world, that is, the world of social practice (according to A. Schütz),
there is an “imposition” of various “finite value domains” on each other: this also applies to
the relationship between the everyday life and religion.
The sociology of everyday life reflected the idea of a conscious orientation of human
behavior. In particular, phenomenology developed concepts of subjectivity and
intersubjectivity of personality behavior [12, 13], as well as of strategic action and interaction
[14]. Symbolic interactionism [15, 16] considers the role of symbols and meanings in how
people interpret reality situations and construct actions.
In Russian sociological science, one should also note a number of approaches that
analyzed various aspects of an indicidual value-orientation behavior: dispositional regulation
of social behavior [17], goal behavior [18], and life values [19].
Currently, an active scientific search carried out by scientists in the field of individual and
group everyday practices is objectively enhanced by the social situation that is changing

3. Anna V. Vinokurova, Anna Yu. Ardalyanova, Elena Yu. Kostina, Nadezhda A. Orlova and Ilya
V. Kupryashkin
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp 175 editor@iaeme.com
intensively and contradictorily within a limited time frame and is subsequently transforming
people’s lives and strategies.
This is precisely why the authors found it expedient to undertake a study to identify the
practices of female migrant workers on the main “platform” of their everyday life: in the
family.
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Studies of everyday life with the use of qualitative methodology allow one to understand
what the family means for modern female migrant workers and what their family values are.
Given this, their value orientations were studied by the authors based on a qualitative
research strategy involving the use of primary and secondary analysis of sociological data.
The source of essential information for the secondary analysis was the research findings
obtained by other authors prior thereto.
The empirical dataset obtained in the course of the author’s research using qualitative
sociological methods, which was conducted in spring 2018, was subjected to primary
analysis. The major sociological data collection technique used by the authors in the research
process was an unstructured interview. The study object was female migrant workers,
married and having children, who came from the former Soviet states of Central Asia to the
Primorye Territory for employment reasons. The study was exploratory-descriptive in nature;
pilot studies were carried out in April 2018 and followed by the main field work in the
summer-autumn of 2018. The respondents were female migrant workers from Central Asian
states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan) aged 18 and older, having arrived in the
Primorye Territory no longer than 1-3 years ago. 56 interviews were obtained during the
empirical study. The authors were guided by the logic of “sampling benchmark cases”
proposed by I.E. Shteinberg [20]. These cases are selected during a conversation with key
informants who help identify what is typical from their perspective.
The use of such an integrated approach including primary and secondary data analysis
enabled the authors to more exhaustively describe the everyday practices of female migrant
workers in the family sphere.
3. RESEARCH FINDINGS
A family as one of the most important universal human values is a system of relationships
between people related by ties of kinship, parenthood, marriage, joint household, and mutual
moral responsibility, the social need for which is caused by the society’s need for physical
and spiritual reproduction of the population. Consequently, the structure of family value
orientations can be divided into three essential components: the values of marriage,
parenthood, and kinship. This is the reason why women who are both married and have
children were chosen as respondents. Thus, the authors had an opportunity to analyze the full
range of family value orientations in female migrant workers, including marital, parent-child,
and kinship relations.
As for the value orientations of kinship, their significance for the respondents is quite
high. All the informants noted that they took interest in their relatives’ lives and problems,
tried to help them in difficult life situations whenever possible and, in turn, to accept their
help. Here is a representative quote from the interview with one of the informants: “...I
overcome hardships with my family, with the people close to me” (Aigul, 48 years old). What
is remarkable is that this is the case not only for immediate relatives but also for distant
family members. At the same time, the pattern of responses was obviously determined by
objective factors. Thus, respondents of a younger age indicated, first of all, participation in

4. Family in the Structure of Life Values of Female Migrant Workers (As Exemplified by Empirical
Research)
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the lives of their parents and their husband’s parents, whereas the informants of older age
groups for an obvious reason noted quite frequent communication with and willingness to
help their brothers and sisters (siblings), nephews, and other more distant relatives since their
own parents had already passed away in many cases. “Yes, I always help whenever and
whoever needs it, as far as possible” (Zara, 58).
All the respondents are unanimous that kinship is a pillar of support in the life of an
individual of today, especially in such common life situations as a disease, major troubles,
setting up house, help in finding employment, etc.
Subsequently, the authors identified the values of parenthood in the structure of family
value orientations of female migrant workers. In other words, it means to assume the social
role of a mother and to fully implement one’s reproductive attitudes.
The parenthood value orientations imply a stable, regular influence on a child’s
personality by the parents. In particular, the respondents note that “... children absorb what is
in the family” (Gulnara, 37 years old). Those informants with minor children spend almost all
their free time with them. “We constantly talk with children” (Shakhnoza, 40 years old). At
the same time, they say that “... yet, the time I spend with my children is not enough”
(Jamilya, 32 years old). The reasons are practical: a large amount of housework, etc.
However, a decrease in the implementation of reproductive attitudes is hardly in evidence in
the families of women with three or more minor children, interviewed by the authors.
Describing the value orientations of parenthood, the women interviewed were unanimous
that a trust-based relationship between children and parents is a priority. “I try to know the
friends of my children, they tell me about them by themselves” (Asmira, 34 years old). The
respondents recognize the primary parental influence on the child’s personality becoming and
development. As noted in one of the interviews: “... as far as possible, children should be
protected from any negative influence, especially when they are young; your personal
example is also important...” (Leila, 43 years old). Several respondents emphasized the need
to give freedom of choice to children: “...children should have choices to make, even if they
may not make them” (Guzel, 26 years old).
In the families of female migrant workers there are prohibitions related to the children
independently browsing through social media and a number of websites, watching cartoons
that promote violence and deviant behavior, etc. “Reasonable restrictions are needed, as well
as prohibitions, too. But everything is within reasonable bounds” (Dinara, 27 years old). At
the same time, most of the informants reject stringent prohibitions: “...not to prohibit the
unnecessary, but rather to show the necessary” (Nargiz, 44 years old); “...soft power is
needed – the power of suggestion” (Amira, 60 years old).
Another component of the family value orientations of female migrant workers is
marriage implying an orientation toward the marriage partner. According to the respondents,
the key elements for a happy married life are respect and support, understanding and
tolerance, and the willingness to discuss controversies emerging between the spouses.
“...Mutual understanding, accordance, and acceptance are essential in a family. The ability to
accept the other person and their decision and not to challenge it only because you think
differently...” (Leila, 43 years old). “...In difficult situations, I express my feeling to my
husband” (Firuza, 29 years old). In other words, the most important thing in a marriage is a
positive emotional interaction between a husband and his wife, commonality of their views
and interests, and consistency of their role expectations.
In this context, the respondents fall into two typological groups nominally designated as
“democrats” and “traditionalists”. A flat hierarchy is peculiar to “democrat” families, with
equality established between the spouses, thereby eliminating the direct dependence of a wife

5. Anna V. Vinokurova, Anna Yu. Ardalyanova, Elena Yu. Kostina, Nadezhda A. Orlova and Ilya
V. Kupryashkin
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp 177 editor@iaeme.com
on her husband: “Literal interpretation of phrases from the Quran about obedience and being
afraid is not quite right these days. Times have changed, attitudes have changed, the mode of
life has changed...” (Leila, 43 years old). “There is no uncomplaining submission... All
family members are interconnected and mutually committed” (Amira, 60 years old). “A
husband must be loved and respected but fear is too much ...” (Zara, 58 years old). “My main
principles are equality and partnership between the spouses” (Dinara, 27 years old).
In the “traditionalist” families, on the contrary, the dependence of a wife on her husband
can be observed with a sufficient degree of obviousness. The superiority of a man is realized
through economic resources and major decision making amassed in his hands, which
contributes to the rigid fixing of the family roles of wife as a preserver of the hearth and of
her husband as a breadwinner, an earner, and an opinion leader. “I try in every way to
emphasize the authority of a man in the family - both of my husband and my son ...”
(Shakhnoza, 40 years old). “I usually want myself to do what he tells me to do, to make sure
that he and the children feel good” (Jamila, 32 years old). “To obey your husband is not an
order but advice. Follow him and you will be fine” (Firuz, 29 years old). “There is a big
responsibility on him, that’s why I need to be able to support him” (Gulnara, 37 years old).
Thus, all the evidence suggests that for the majority of respondents, the most important
aspect in family relations is mutual understanding and mutual responsibility of the family
members to each other. All the informants quite highly appreciate the degree of satisfaction
with their family life and take a favorable view of their family life quality. Fundamental
family values are formed in the interactions of husband and wife and subsequently lay the
natural groundwork for parent-child relations.
In general, the family for female migrant workers serves as a foundation in forming and
constructing a steady base for their social life. Family value orientations associated with
positive marital, parent-child, and kinship relations retain their high significance.
4. CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the everyday practices of modern female migrant workers in the area
of family relations are a complex and dynamic phenomenon. Gender and age peculiarities,
educational background, financial situation, as well as the needs, interests, and motivation of
women’s activities can be identified as principal conditions that have a primary impact on
them.
The results of the empirical research undertaken by the authors have shown that the most
important value orientations in the structure of family values of female migrant workers are
those of marriage, while the values of parenthood and kinship retain their high status as well.
When speaking about family and family values, it is important to note the fact that
Russian society is characterized by a state of unstable equilibrium of the old and the new,
asymmetry between the economy and moral resources of society, an increased social strain,
difficult adaptation of migrant workers in host regional communities, and other ambiguous
trends. Under these conditions, it is the family that allows an individual to gain support and
acceptance. In other words, the family acts as a basis for female migrant workers in laying the
sustainable groundwork for their lives; in other words, everyday practices associated with the
family values retain their high relevance in the observed instability context.
In general, the ambiguous impact of changes occurring both in the global world and in
Russia on the everyday practices of female migrant workers allows for a conclusion about the
process of their transformation. This partly constitutes a problematic field for further study of
the everyday practices of modern female migrant workers, as well as for a study of their life’s

6. Family in the Structure of Life Values of Female Migrant Workers (As Exemplified by Empirical
Research)
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activities from the perspective of value-based approach, its principle being to cognize specific
life spheres through the prism of estimates of various social group representatives.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The reported study was funded by RFBR according to research project No. 17-03-50032
“The Traditions and Innovations of Lifestyle in the Families of Migrant Workers”.
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