The article presents the results of theoretical analysis of the problem of mass migration under conditions of migrant phobia in the Russian society. The authors paid special attention to the role of the mass media in migrant’s image formation. Media images cause mostly negative emotions in social conciseness; they form an image of «foreign», destructive type of ethnic migrant, that is connected with either illegal economical spheres or crime. It is pointed out that such stereotypes are further promoted by the mass culture and are distributed via oral transmission, on the Internet. Exaggeration and absolutization of these images provokes mass xenophobic sentiments.