In the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, close attention of the expert community and administrators is turned to the possible scenarios of development of interethnic relations in the Russian regions. This article presents the results of ethnosociological monitoring that took place in the Chelyabinsk region. Our attention is focused on assessing the risks of perception of trans-border migrants, searching for the main indicators, on the basis of which it is possible to monitor the dynamics of xenophobic attitudes, developing recommendations to improve migration and national policies. The source base of the research was the data of the ethno-sociological survey conducted in April-June 2021 and the results of expert interviews. The research involved 2,062 respondents and 105 experts. This toolkit allowed the authors to determine the current state of interethnic relations in the region, to show the degree of influence of migration from the Central Asia and the PRC on them, to determine the main attitudes of the South Ural residents towards the non-ethnic migrants. The ethno-sociological monitoring showed that inter-ethnic relations in the Chelyabinsk region are in a state of latent tension, largely caused by difficulties of incorporation of the natives of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and PRC into the host society. On the basis of the collected empirical data, recommendations were developed to change the context of perception of migration and migrants from the main receiving countries of international and labor migration. These include creating a system of ethno-sociological monitoring based on the research conducted, removing hate speech, xenophobic rhetoric and negative stereotypes about migrants from the regional press, explaining the positive consequences of international migration, and creating conditions for interaction between the different groups of migrants and the local population.
