Trends in the Development of the “Russian-Speaking Economy” in the Kingdom of Thailand at the present stage

The growing flows of native Russian-speakers from the CIS countries to the Kingdom of Thailand, but primarily from the Russian Federation, due to many reasons (first of all, the preservation of an unstable geopolitical situation in the world, illegal sanctions, imposed by Western states against Russia, the emergence of an impressive number of followers of a more mobile lifestyle, i.e. digital nomads, etc.) against the background of Thailand’s self-sufficient foreign and trade policy to attract foreigners and international capital, the development of bilateral relations with the Russian Federation, etc. As a result, the Kingdom has been becoming one of the most attractive destinations for travel, life, and work of our compatriots. All this leads to the rapid development of the so-called “Russian-speaking economy”, which is gradually turning into a significant factor that can not only satisfy the consumer demand of representatives of the Russian-speaking community temporarily staying or living abroad, but also provide them with work, in fact giving them the opportunity to integrate more smoothly into social and economic processes and society of the host country, allowing they communicate and integrate. Moreover, goods and services, as well as the number of enterprises that provide services mainly to the Russian-speakers, is actively expanding. The authors of the article set themselves the task of investigating a relatively new social phenomenon, i.e. so-called «Russian-speaking» economy, describing situation within the Kingdom of Thailand in terms of structure and functioning features, and in addition, as a mechanism for the adaptation of Russian-speaking migrants in the labor market of the host country. The scale of such economy closely dependents on the number of the Russian-speaking communities and the volume of tourist flows from the CIS. Therefore, a special section of the work is devoted to the peculiarities of the flow of the Russian-speakers to Thailand.