Some time ago a roundtable at one institute dealing with diaspora research took place in Kyiv. Problems of emigration were discussed at the roundtable. The Ukrainian media raised serious problems about emigration some time ago. From the beginning of 1990s, when the first signs of such happening, unusual for Soviet times, appeared. Actually there was emigration in those times too, but it was mostly within the boundaries of the one "Motherland"- the former U.S.S.R. (FSU) and was considered as regional migration. Now when independent national countries appeared in the territory of the FSU, any departure outside of Ukraine for permanent place of work means emigration.
Emigration from Ukraine has a long history. The first wave of emigration began near the end of 19th century and continued until early in the 20th century. At that time people emigrated in two directions. The first one was to the West, mainly overseas - to Canada and the U.S.A., and the second one was to the East - to the free lands of the Far East and Altai and to low populated regions of the former Russian Empire. The first direction - to the West - was considered as emigration, and the second direction - to the East - was considered as migration, relocation within the boundaries of one country. There was much written about Ukrainian emigration overseas - mainly a lot of the written material is sad. Because mainly people from Halychyna (Galicia)-currently Western Ukraine, which was a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, were leaving Ukraine trying to flee away from poverty, from lack of land, in search of a better fortune and fate. These same reasons caused people to go to the East - mainly due to lack of land. The Diaspora of millions of Ukrainians to the U.S. and Canada and to the Far East formed mostly in those times, during the time period before the start of World War I. This was the emigration of husbandmen.
The second wave of emigration happened in the shaky years of Civil war of 1918 - 1922 when Soviet power established itself in Ukraine (and Russia). Mainly well to do people, advocates of an independent Ukraine were immigrating to the West - all those who didn't accept Soviet power, the "dictatorship of the proletariat", more precisely, the dictatorship of the Bolshevik (Communist) party were leaving the country. Among those emigrants were even such people as Mykhailo Hrushevskiy, the first President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, the then prime-minister, Siemen Petlyura, a leader of Ukrainian nationalist forces, most ministers of the government of the Ukrainian National Republic, scientists, engineers, inventors etc.
The third wave of emigration is related to World War II. The main part of those Ukrainian emigrants was comprised of young people taken out of Ukraine for enforced labor in Nazi Germany (including also Austria and Lithuania), and who (young people) due to various reasons didn't come back to their native land after the war. Those people stayed in Western Europe and over time many moved overseas - to the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Australia and other parts of the world. There were also some people among those emigrants who sided with fascist Germany (soldiers of "Halychyna-SS" division, military policemen, employees of occupational administrations, people punished by Soviet punitive system, etc.). Those people couldn't return to or remain in the Soviet system because they would be subjected to severe purges, death and destruction. Those people left for the West and probably there are several millions of them there now. No one knows the exact numbers.
The official attitude of those in power in the Soviet Union to the second and third waves of emigration was negative and even hostile. Just the fact that some Soviet people had relatives abroad put them in the category of "second class people". When seeking a new place of work, all citizens of the former U.S.S.R. were obliged to state in work questionnaires whether they had relatives abroad or not. The hiding of such information was punished severely. There were thousands of destroyed fates, including those of scientists and artists, only because they didn't indicate having relatives abroad, about whom the former couldn't have known at all. Only perestroika and Ukraine getting its Independence drastically changed the attitude of the authorities to emigrants. Thousands of relatives and close people found each other eventually, having waited for this for decades.
Circumstances for a new, fourth wave of emigration developed with the reformation of the social-economic and political system of Ukraine.
Thousands of enterprises stopped operation and closed down, the agriculture sector is being reformed, demand for scientific research and development fell, and millions of people of different qualifications, age, sex, and such remained without jobs and the means for maintaining their existence. Immediately hyperinflation destroyed people's savings put aside for emergency situations. And unemployment payments are so small that they can't even feed a cat. In search of ways for a decent living and a productive life, a wave of labor immigrants and permanent residence emigrants rose very quickly.
During the last 10 years at least seven million Ukrainian people worked abroad, and according to different estimates currently there are as many as (and perhaps many more) approximately 1 to 2.5 million Ukrainian people working abroad. Such inaccuracy in numbers is due to the fact that departure to the West is more or less controlled by the number of issued passports and visas, but departure to Belarus and Russia through transparent borders and under internal passports is not counted at all. More or less stable emigration flows from different regions of Ukraine developed. From Western Ukraine people are mostly leaving to work in Western countries: Portugal, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, and Poland. Form Eastern Ukraine people are mainly going to Russia. For example, people from Chernivtsi Oblast (Western Ukraine) mainly go to Italy, and this is seen just from the fact that Italian language courses enjoy the highest demand in this oblast. Scientists and highly qualified specialists mainly leave for the West, though they are in demand in the Eastern countries too.
Conditions for Ukrainian labor immigrants in the West are rather difficult and complicated since most of them have practically no rights there. Ukraine has corresponding agreements for mutual assistance to its temporary workers with only 10 countries of Europe and the CIS. However, those who are at least familiar with formal procedures for going through official channels for placement of workers abroad and who are knowledgeable know that legal ways are more difficult than the hardest labor. Getting an official permit for temporary work in any country is like being in hell, especially when we are talking about such countries as the U.S., Israel, and the Shengen countries. Only in Portugal, Greece, and especially in Italy do employers take upon themselves the trouble of providing for the legitimate of stay of foreign workers. It is said that the industry and diligence of Ukrainian people as workers are very much valued in those countries.
For Ukraine this wave of labor migrants can be very harmful. At the beginning only positive sides were seen in labor migration to foreign countries. That is, the belief that such would ease the unemployment situation in Ukraine, would bring our people closer to Western work standards and would provide an opportunity for people to earn some money to organize their small business upon their return to Ukraine. It was thought that this would contribute to the development of a Ukrainian middle class. In reality this hasn't happened. Up to 25% of those who leave to go and work abroad stay there for permanent residence. Those who come back with small earnings can barely solve their pending problems here: building and renovation of a dwelling, education for their children, healthcare etc. The earnings of these Ukrainian people partly explain Ukrainian statistics, according to which citizens of Ukraine purchase by one third more than they get in official salaries and incomes. And only a few succeed beyond being in a class of hired workers and they do not tend to be able to enter the middle class.
So, a single person maybe doesn't lose anything, but gets quite little by working abroad. But the state, the society, undoubtedly incur losses, but can't do anything to help these many young, healthy, qualified people work towards national prosperity.
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