03 July 2013, 17:00
On Wednesday, opening parliamentary hearings entitled “Ukrainian labour migration: state, problems and ways to solve them”, the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi stressed their importance and topicality. He noted that labour migration, which is a world-wide process, has gained features of a “national phenomenon” in Ukraine.
R.Koshulynskyi noted that today it is hard to state the exact number of labour migrants form Ukraine. He added that it has reached four and a half million at the end of 2008, following the information of the Ukrainian Social Research Center.
R.Koshulynskyi noted that there is a tendency towards decreasing the number of emigrants from Ukraine during the past several years. He informed that in 2012, 300 thousand less citizens than the previous year have moved to work abroad. He deems that this is connected “neither with the refined working conditions in our country, not with real increase of the number of workplaces, but with a continuous socio-economic crisis in the Eurozone”.
According to the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, youth work migration is becoming a sad tendency of recent years. “Eighty per cent of students express their willingness to study abroad and after graduation find employment there,” added the politician.
At the same time, R.Koshulynskyi noted that “our work migrants play enormous role in supporting Ukraine’s economy”. He informed that according to the International Organization for Migration data, in 2012 migrant workers transferred USD 7,5 billion, which is USD 1,5 billion more than all foreign investors have invested into Ukraine for the past year.
Commenting upon the main reasons due to which Ukrainians are ready to move abroad, R.Koshulynskyi noted inability of self-realization, bureaucratism of public procedures, corruption, legal insecurity and disbelief in the prospects of the country.
Summing up, the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada stressed once again that “settlement of the labour migration problem and creation of new workplaces should be under constant control of both legislative and executive authority”. “The state has to stimulate and create all the necessary conditions, so that our citizens could work in Ukraine and stay close to their relatives,” emphasized the politician.