Discrimination against Migrants in the Moscow Rental Market (Case Study of Iranian and Tajik Students)

Abstract

For finding accommodation in Moscow, international students face many discriminatory advertisements and landlords who refuse to lend their properties to immigrants because of their ethnicities, religion, etc., which puts tremendous pressure on international students. However, the landlords might believe that their behavior is not discriminating. Therefore, in this study, we aim to investigate the existence of discrimination against Iranian and Tajik students in Moscow’s rental market. We have chosen Iranian and Tajik students currently studying in Moscow since the students from these two countries share a similar language, religion, and culture. This study uses a qualitative approach based on a structured interview consisting of 15 questions to understand the problems Iranian and Tajik students face in Moscow’s rental market. Also, we analyzed 1,221 rental advertisements to determine the number of discriminatory expressions on Russian real estate websites and applications. The results show that discriminative words such as “Strictly Slav,” “Only Slav,” and “Slav (Russian citizens only)” include almost 25% of the advertisements on internet websites. The study results also show that landlords refuse to lend an apartment, room, or bed to Iranian and Tajik students for almost the same reasons, such as their ethnicities, religion, and a citizen of another country rather than the Russian federation being a student. We can conclude that the role of universities in facilitating the housing problems of international students and the role of the government in providing juridical access in terms of discrimination is essential.