Program of the III-rd Session of Volodymyr Yevtukh Ethnosociological School e...
Contemporary migrations in the ukraine
1. CONTEMPORARY MIGRATIONS IN THE UKRAINE
The Ukraine has experience of migrations of people in great numbers. The first
immigrants from the Ukraine appeared in other countries in the second half of the
19th century. Among these countries were the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina. For
example, in the period at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century,
over 200,000 people emigrated mainly from the countryside of the western regions of
the Ukraine (Zberigayuchy ukrainsku samobutnist 1992). Scientists state the
following reasons for such a migrant flow to overseas countries: poverty, national
and political discrimination (at that time the above mentioned regions belonged to the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire). Countries of Central and Western Europe were seen by
Ukrainian emigrants as a temporary station on their way to America. In the 1920s
and 1930s new places of emigration appeared - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria
where those political immigrants went to who could not accept the socialist system.
The phenomenon of political emigration also took place after World War II.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the appearance of new independent
states, migrations really became a problem for the new states, and especially for the
Ukraine. What are the causes of today's migrations? There are three main causes: 1)
resettlement of population between the former Soviet republics as a result of the
collapse of the Soviet state; 2) unsatisfactory conditions (economic, political,
cultural) of life under contemporary circumstances; 3) transit migrations.
As to the first reason, resettlements took place before the collapse of the Soviet
Union, but these migrations were seen as the moving of people within the framework
of one and the same state, in other words, these migrations were considered as
interregional. They were classified officially as a factor of "strengthening the
friendship of the peoples of the USSR". These migrations were strongly regulated
with the aim of building a new conglomerate, the so called "Soviet people".
Today, these movements of people are between the new states. The migrants to the
Ukraine are: 1) Ukrainians coming back to their motherland from different parts of
the former Soviet Union (1990: 150,800); 2) people deported during the Stalin era,
among them Crimean-Tartars (in the period from 1989-1993 roughly 200,000
Crimean-Tartars came to the Ukraine from Central Asia and the Cuban Region in
2. Russia mainly to the Crimean peninsula), Armenians, Bulgarians and others; 3)
refugees, who came from the zones of ethnic and interstate conflicts (for example,
during the conflict in the Dnester-Republic, Moldavia in 1992, more than 60,000
refugees came to the Odessa region; refugees are coming from other zones too - the
Caucasus, Central Asia).
As to the second reason for migrations – unsatisfactory conditions of life –
sociological studies in 1992-1993 show that more than 80 percent of Ukrainians
experience a worsening of their living standards, and over 60 percent do not expect
that this will be improved in the foreseeable future. Public opinion polls (at the end of
1992) indicate the following trends: 28 percent of the respondents would like to go
abroad to work there for a few months, 21 percent for a few years and 13 percent
want to leave the Ukraine forever (IOM 1993). Very impressive numbers of
Ukrainians wanting to work in other countries are among young people aged 30-34
years.
The polls of 1993 confirm the main tendencies indicated in the previous studies:
12.3 percent of the respondents would like to emigrate for good, and 52.4 percent
would like to leave the Ukraine for temporary work or study (Shlepakov et alt. 1993).
To understand the real picture of migration processes, one has to know the motives of
emigration: the overwhelming majority of respondents (over 70 percent) would like
to leave the Ukraine because of unsatisfactory economic conditions. Over one third
stated that in the Ukraine they could not realize their abilities. Remarkable in this
aspect is the fact that among these people 41 percent are youths under twenty years,
40 percent are students. The third emigration motive is the concern for the future of
their children (22.1 percent). Political instability can be seen as an important reason
for emigration as well (17 percent). Among other reasons, ethnic and religious
motives were mentioned (14 percent) and ecological ones, connected primarily with
Chernobyl (5.6 percent). But only 3.7 percent of respondents indicated national
discrimination as a reason for emigrating (Shlepakov et al. 1993).
What are the main destination countries of potential emigrants from the Ukraine?
More than 50 percent of them see the USA and Canada as desirable countries; Israel
is attractive for 2.5 percent. There are people who want to go to Australia, Argentina,
3. Chile and in the recent years to Russia too. In the final case, potential migrants are
from the Crimean peninsula and the eastern- southern regions of the Ukraine, where
the Russian speaking population is concentrated.
One group of people in the polls has drawn the special attention of the social
scientists: 6.3 percent of the respondents would like to go anywhere, no matter what
country (Shlepakov et alt. 1993). The interpretation of this is that this group
represents very resolute people who want to leave the country by any means.
The figures allow us to draw one general conclusion: The Ukraine could loose a
large part of its productive labour force.
To what extent were the plans to emigrate realized in the last few years? We have
to say that the intentions could not be realized to a great extent, for political and
bureaucratic reasons: in 1990 the total number of migrants who left the Ukraine for
good was 90,000; in 1991 it was 70,000, and in 1992 it was 44,400. The other group
of "migrants" consists of those who go abroad for a short period: 1990: 1,839,000,
1991: 2,327,000, 1992: 1,903,000 (Shlepakov et alt. 1993). There are such categories
of "migrants" in this group as:
1) business people (people going abroad on behalf of their institutions to different
countries);
2) individuals invited by relatives and acquaintances (different countries);
3) "shopping-tourists" (Poland, Turkey, China and others);
4) illegal labour force (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, to some extent Germany).
Many from these last three categories, after coming to their first destination
country, seek the possibility to stay there for a longer period of time, or forever
(especially if it is a western country) or in order to move to western countries if it is a
former socialist state. It means that frontier countries are seen by this category of
Ukrainian emigrants as a temporary station in their move to the west.
Transit migration now forms a very new phenomenon for the Ukraine, in most
cases illegal. The Ukraine is a transit country for migrants from Asia, Africa, Russia
and the Caucasus. There are some places where transit migrants in the Ukraine are
concentrated: Kiev, Charkov, the western border of the state with Slovakia. The main
categories of these migrants are: 1) students from Asiatic, Arabic and African
4. countries (Vietnam, China, northern regions of Africa, Senegal and others), who after
graduating Ukrainian universities do not want to go back to their countries; 2)
workers from South-Eastern Asia, who had contracts for 2-5 years in main industrial
centres of our country and after finishing their contract work stayed for a period in
the Ukraine and tried to cross the border to the west; 3) real transit migrants, for
whom the Ukraine is a country, which they cross on their way to western states.
Today it is difficult to say how many migrants of such a category there are in the
Ukraine now, or how many people are going through this country per year. What we
know, is that last year (1993) 17,614 illegal migrants were stopped at the borders of
Ukraine. At present we are starting to study this phenomenon and analyse measures
which could stop or at least regulate the flow of transit migrants.
Within this context one thing remains to be mentioned, that the Ukrainian
government now pays great attention to this issue. How to handle the problem of
transit migrants is a topic of discussion in the Ukrainian parliament and in the draft of
an immigration law (in preparation now). To my mind it is very important in our case
to use the experience of this problem that exists in western countries, on the one
hand, and to coordinate the attempts of neighbouring countries (Ukraine, Poland,
Slovakia, Hungary) to overcome this problem on the other.
References
1. International Organization for Migration (IOM) (1993): Ukraine Migrant
Profile Project Country File. January 1993
2. Shlepakov A.M., Malynovska O.A., Pinchuk O.M. (1993): Emigraziya
naselennya Ukrainy: "sozialno-ekonomichni aspekty ta moshlyvi naslidky". –
Kiev. (Shlepakov A.M., Malynovska O.A., Pinchuk O.M. (1993): The
emigration of Ukraine’s population: „the social-economic aspects and possible
results“. – Kiev).
3. Zberigayuchy ukrainsku samobutnist (1992): Kiev, s. 9-20. (Saving the
Ukrainian originality (1992): Kiev, p. 9-20.)
