Helping Emigrants Flee a Political Crisis: How Antiwar Alignment Shapes the Aid Preferences of Wartime Russian Migrants

For individuals fleeing oppressive regimes, the support from migrant communities often serves as a lifeline. Although prior research has mostly focused on how host societies respond to migration, this study shifts the lens to examine how migrants themselves decide whom to support in contexts of authoritarian repression and war. Drawing on an original survey of 2,036 Russian emigrants residing in more than 60 countries, which features a conjoint experiment, as well as 60 in-depth interviews, we investigate the criteria underlying migrant-to-migrant assistance. Russian migrants prefer to assist those emigrants who are fleeing because of political persecution or their dissenting political views, rather than those leaving for economic reasons. We suggest that this preference reflects not only political solidarity with antiwar emigrants but also a strategic effort to reshape the image of the Russian diaspora in response to nationality-based discrimination. In addition, contrary to the literature, migrants, driven by perceptions of vulnerability and a sense of guilt over Russia’s wartime actions, offer more support to members of ethnic minorities than to ethnic Russians.