The article provides a representation of the concept “migrant” by the Russian legislation and international law. The evolution of the representation of the concept “migrant” is shown by various Russian lexicographical sources. The basic classification concepts of the analyzed criteria are identified and described. The status paradigm of the concept “migrant” is presented on the basis of Russian and international law and the categories of international migrants are described. The appeal to the various categories of migrants, the study of their classification characteristics allowed to give linguo-cultural representation of the concept “migrant” and to trace the formation of the status paradigm of the migrant.