In this article I will explore the correlation between the discourse of youths’ out-migration and their attitudes toward the infrastructure of Tilichiki, a small town in Kamchatka. I attempt to contest the perspective that out-migration (resulting in town depopulation) is caused by the perception of social infrastructure as insufficient. The analysis of local discourse shows that negative or positive descriptions of infrastructure, social services and life conditions in the town in general depend on whether the person has plans of leaving the town. This correlation is supported by temporal dimension of one’s life project: the duration of speakers’ residence in the town or the amount of time that they are planning to spend there.
Ksenia Gavrilova, PhD, is research fellow at the Center for Arctic Social Studies, European University at St. Petersburg. Research interests: nation and nationalism studies, ethnography of the Volga region, industrialization of the Arctic, Northern Sea Route, discourse studies. E-mail: kgawrilova@eu.spb.ru