Labor migration is quite an ordinary phenomenon in Ukraine.
Like a powerful pump, it has been sucking out our labor resources since the end of the 19th century, scattering them all over the globe.
Its first wave rose more than a century ago, when thousands of landless villagers from the west left their homeland to seek fortune elsewhere, in Canada or in the United States. Ukraine's easterners moved to the Far East and the Altai Republic.
The second wave of labor migration engulfed Ukraine after World War I. These migrants came mostly from the west, which was part of Poland then. They had no land but also sought relief from ethnic persecution.
The third wave followed after World War II. Up to 300,000 of the three million Ukrainians enslaved by the Nazis traveled westwards, most often across the ocean. Meanwhile, the Communist Party resettled thousands of western Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Siberia and Middle Asia.
The Soviet Union's Ukrainians never thought, unless perhaps in their worst nightmares, that one day they would have to look for a job abroad. However, when the Cold War ended and after the Soviet empire's downfall their nightmare became reality. Millions of people lost their jobs and had no money for living. About ten million workers, representing mainly the collapsed superpower's military industries, were desperate and hopeless. They had some savings but hyperinflation devalued them instantly. The country began introducing market reforms, and that painful and chaotic transition led to even more people losing their jobs. Unemployment was a true tragedy and scourge of that turbulent period.
No country in the world, even with the most potent economy, could have prevented such a disaster. Ukraine was a young independent state with no bank reserves and so millions of its residents had to take their lives in their own hands. Ukraine's unemployed flooded the labor market of Europe and Russia. Human traffickers used lots of women as sex slaves. This contributed to the negative image of Ukrainians abroad. We were seen as miserable and poor jobseekers and our women as prostitutes.
Russia was the biggest, closest and most accessible country for our migrants. Only recently citizens of the Soviet Union, many Ukrainians had friends, colleagues and relatives in Russia. Forty percent of Russian families have relations in Ukraine or come from Ukraine. Many jobless Ukrainians were known in Russia as highly qualified and hard-working specialists. Although there were lots of unemployed Russians at that time, it was relatively easy for Ukrainians to find a job in Russia. Even today there are two million Ukrainian migrants in the Russian Federation.
There are no accurate statistical data about labor migration in Ukraine, the number of our workers abroad, their incomes and how much money they send to their families. Lots of studies have been carried out in this field over the past several years but they are often contradictory.
Dr. A. Haidutsky of the National Bank of Ukraine has recently published results of his complex analysis of both official information and unofficial facts about the issue in an article in Dzerkalo Tyzhdnya (The Mirror of the Week), one of Ukraine's most reputable weeklies. As an economist, I can confirm that his study presents a very objective picture of labor migration and can be used by the government and international community.
According to Haidutsky, there are 4.93 million Ukrainian migrants abroad - not three million or seven million, as some experts suggest. This figure almost coincides with that published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in its recent report (4.8 mln).
Poland is Europe's second largest source of labor migrants after Ukraine. One million Poles have benefited from the membership of their country in the European Union, traveling all over the continent to find a better and well-paid job.
Ukrainians are coming to Poland to replace them. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian migrants live and work in Italy (500,000), Greece (350,000) and Portugal (260,000). They say they are treated with kindness and enjoy relatively good working conditions in those countries, particularly in Portugal. We knew very little about this faraway state until recently. Today thousands of Ukrainians learn Portuguese and master professions that are in popular demand in Europe's westernmost country.
Complicated visa requirements and unfriendly attitude of the locals make fewer Ukrainians (130,000) wish to work in the Czech Republic, the United States and Germany. Very few of our compatriots work in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, Switzerland and Israel. Although offering quite high salaries and other social benefits, these countries discourage our migrants with too many bureaucratic barriers and draconian migration laws.
The number of Ukrainian labor migrants is, in fact, average when compared with other states with high labor migration. Our migrants make up 14 percent of the nation of 47 million, while 36 percent of Georgians, 27 percent of Moldavians and 30 percent of those from the Caribbean islands work abroad. However, even 14 percent is quite a dangerous number, given the fact that 25 percent of migrants choose to settle where they are employed. This means one million Ukrainians will be leaving their motherland forever in the next few years, making the Diaspora grow to 20 million members and simultaneously contributing to Ukraine's population decline.
Knowing the number of our migrants and the geography of their employment and also having credible statistical information about average salaries in each of these states, one can learn how much money they earn and bring into Ukraine.
The highest salaries for migrants are in Ireland (3,125 USD). One can earn more than 1,000 USD in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and Israel. The lowest salaries are in Russia (USD 371) and Poland (USD 430). Thus our migrants in Russia (2 million), Poland (1 million) and Italy (500,000) annually earn USD 9 billion in Russia, USD 5.6 billion in Poland and USD 5.2 billion in Italy. Every year Ukrainians get USD 35.3 billion abroad. Like other migrants, they are said to send 60.3 percent of their income home, which makes it an astonishing USD 21.3 billion. This huge sum, a quarter of Ukraine's GDP, exceeds the rate of foreign investment in the national economy. By the way, this sum is equal to that transferred by dozens of millions of migrants from China, India and Mexico.
Our workers are gradually occupying foreign markets, integrating into the global economy. Having little trust in Ukrainian banks, they use different means to send money to their families when unable to bring it personally. Unfortunately, Ukrainian bankers do not think about the comfort of their compatriots abroad. Our corrupt officials also seem uninterested in having a transparent system of money transfers. Ukraine, however, could follow the example of many civilized states and use these billions of dollars reasonably and strategically to boost small and medium businesses, develop infrastructure, implement regional programs and create new jobs.
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