The politics commenting on the issues of migration, mainly remember it in a negative context, it is written in the blog on the “New time” by the Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Economic Strategy Dmitryi Yablonovskii. But is it migration, especially labour one, only a “betrayal” and how to fight this “betrayal”?
The increase in labor mobility contributes to global economic development. This occurs because economic resources are used through migration more productively. However, for donor countries the effect of migration is not always positive. The labor force is one of the production factors. Its lack in a result of migration may inhibit the development of the economy. If the highly educated and highly skilled workers leave the country, it restrains technological development and implementation of innovations limiting a qualitative change in the structure of the economy.
According to the researches of the Center for Economic Strategy “How many Ukrainians have gone abroad and what the country should do about it”, migration in Ukraine has primarily a short-term, pendular character. According to our expert estimates, up to 4 million Ukrainians may be involved in labour migration, while at the same time outside of the country this figure may be up to 2.6-2.7 million Ukrainians.
The negative effects of short-term labour migration can involve: a decrease in consumer demand, reduce of the tax revenues and social contributions, wage inflation, social stratification of the society. But the positive effect includes – reduction in unemployment and poverty, the inflow of remittances, greater incentives to invest in education.
Migrants bring or transfer to Ukraine funds earned abroad annually, which comprises 7.6-8.4% of GDP. This amount exceeds the entire volume of foreign direct investment in our country. For example, in 2015-2017 years, this money helped to keep the surplus of the current account balance close to zero.
Among the negative consequences of migration there is a labor shortage, which becomes especially noticeable with the release out of the economy crisis. The labor migrants leave the country for higher wages. To compete with wages of the foreign employers and not to lose competitiveness the Ukrainian enterprises are forced to invest in increasing productivity.
The Ukrainians working abroad, as a rule, do not pay taxes on their income, but often receive subsidies and social benefits from the state. In 2015-2016 the transfers from the state accounted for 27% of total resources of the households, more than 40% of Ukrainian families receive subsidies. It can be assumed that part of these funds was received by the Ukrainians, who could not qualify for them, if the declared income earned abroad.
In the absence of reliable data it is difficult to accurately estimate the net impact of migration on the country’s economy. In our opinion, it is positive during the crisis, but can become a constraining factor for economic development in the long term perspective.
European experience shows: the countries just joining the EU have experienced large-scale emigration wave to the more developed EU countries. For example, the population of Latvia in the years of 2000 – 2017 was reduced by a quarter. According to the International Monetary Fund in different Eastern European countries the emigration “has cut” 0.6-0.9 GDP from the annual GDP growth in 1999-2014.
In order to avoid the negative impact of the migration on economic growth in the long term perspective, Ukraine needs investments to improve productivity. This will improve real wages within the country and make migration to be a less attractive alternative.
Information about three foreigners’ motion toward the border was reported to the officers of the BD “Shegeni” by the local residents. Not wasting time, the law enforcers started to the place of possible stay of the offenders. The persons intending to walk beyond the check point aiming to cross the Ukrainian-Polish border were detained. They were the citizens of India, two men and a woman, YOB 1989, 1996 and 1975.
Currently, there is about one million Ukrainians work in Poland, however, only 300 ths persons are registered in the Pension System. People are sent from Ukraine as if on business trips. As soon as they receive a work permit there, they are discharged in Ukraine and are not insured at the place of work. A person paying no any insurance premium he/she does not have any record of service. If returning to Ukraine he/she does not have right for pension in neither country. Due to the labor migration process Ukraine faces a problem of experts’ lack. If this tendency continues we will have a complete staff shortage, even unqualified. 7 million citizens of Ukraine are involved in seasonal labor migration, in addition to that 3,2 mln work constantly abroad.
State Border Guard Service of Ukraine continues to ramp up the potential of international cooperation for more efficient counteraction to the transborder delinquency in the European continent. Detection of a group of Ukrainians in cooperation with the law enforcers of Greece and Italy, who smuggled illegal migrants, is the next case of this cooperation.
At night, the officers of the BD “Palad-Komarivtsi””, Chop Detachment, stopped two attempts of crossing Ukrainian-Slovakian border. The border patrol, servicing close the populated area in Transcarpathian region, detected two unfamiliar persons by means of thermal imager. as the offenders were in a far way distance to reach them, the border guards had to inform their Slovakian colleagues. Due to operative cooperation, the law enforcers of both countries managed to stop two citizens of Pakistan in due time, who looking for better living conditions intended to get illegally to Europe. Soon, after some searches the border guards detained one more illegal migrant. The young man of Asian appearance walked in the direction of the border. The detainee had no any documents and introduced himself as a citizen of India. The offender was delivered to Border Guard Department to undergo filtration procedures and drawing up appropriate procedural documents. Detained Pakistani will be handed to Ukrainian side in order of readmission. Upon their identification the court will make decision on the destiny of three illegal migrants.
Sate border guard service of Ukraine continues counteracting the organized crime at the border. In order to prevent violations, all directions of the border are reinforced with reserves from the stocks of the detachments and regional departments, activity of operative and searching subdivisions is activated, cooperation with National Police and other law enforcers is arranged. Thus, processing received information about possible smuggling of the group of illegal migrants the border guards of Summy Detachment detained three trespassers. These were Pakistani citizens and two undocumented persons of Asian appearance being detained the border detail in the area of the international check point. Currently, the filtration actions are performed. The appropriate law enforcement agencies are informed on the case. The border guards do a complex of actions to identify the circle of persons involved in illegal transportation of persons through the state border of Ukraine.
A citizen of India was detained in the Boryspil Airport for bribing the border guards aiming to enter the teritory of Ukraine in illegal way.
The Azerbaijani citizen, who tried to bypass the checkpoint “Maidan-Kopyschansky” to enter the territory of the Republic of Belarus, was detained last night by the border guards of the Zhytomyr Detachment.
Two unknown persons were revealed nearby the border by the district inspector of Lviv Detachment. Aiming not to admit border violation, the reaction group started immediately to the place of the offenders’ possible stay. The unknown persons were walking through the woods towards the border; they were stopped in the suburb of the village Hrushiv. Detainees were delivered to the border division in order to perform verification action and identify the circumstances of the offence.