ИСТИНА

The choice of migration direction is based on individual experience and one's social status. The local geographic myths and institutional environment also matters. The method of using the geographical preferences and choices as a key to understanding the socio-cultural phenomena of the city of Norilsk seems to have brought positive outcomes. Since the tendency to express migration intentions is very strong among Arctic cities people we invite to use such declarations as a new method for studying of Arctic social process. The direction of future migration declared could be used as a marker of person’s social position in the North. The research is based on a questionnaire run among pupils of eight high schools in the city of Norilsk, the city with the most extreme environment within the group of large Russian Arctic cities.