Bakulina V. O., Rieznik M. A.

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Ukraine

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS

OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION ON UKRAINE

 

Globalization is one of the main factors of international migration, which, in its turn, is of great importance for the development of socio-economic relations, thus, affecting political development. Due to the fact that international migration covers a lot of countries and regions, making them interdependent and dependent on migration flows, the changes in the migration policy of one country can affect the situation of migration in other countries. Political and economic instability, which is characteristic for Ukraine nowadays, contributes to the formation of migration flows in Ukraine, which makes the research urgent.

The term migration originates from the Latin migro (migratio), which means “I move, relocation, moving” [1]. Currently, Ukraine is characterized by intensified and increased scale of labour migration of Ukrainian citizens abroad. Thus, according to the State statistics service of Ukraine, the number of emigrants in 2010-2015 gradually increased from 14,677 people in 2010 to 21,409 people in 2015. Alongside with the increasing number of emigrants, there is a decrease in the number of immigrants. In general, the dynamics of international migration processes in Ukraine is reflected on the overall reduction of the population of Ukraine, which decreased from 45.8 million people in 2010 to 42.6 million people in 2015 [2].

Total population decline is accompanied with the reduction in the number of economically active population of Ukraine, which creates an unfavorable situation in the labour market. On the one hand, this situation should create some demand for labour, but, in practice, it leads to the increase in the level of unemployment. Thus, the State Employment Service had 1 654.7 thousand unemployed citizens registered in 2015. 11 people applied for 1 vacancy. 42 % of the total number of the unemployed were young people under 35. However, according to local analysts, the current information provided by the State Statistics Service, underestimates the real level of unemployment approximately by 5 times. The reason for this is multiple hidden unemployment. It exists in the form of "paid unemployment" – indefinite vacations, shorter working weeks, a reduced working day, etc [3]. Another negative effect of international labour migration on the labour market of Ukraine is the loss of skilled, qualified personnel. According to the Ukrainian parliamentary ombudsman Nina Karpachiova, 30% of Ukrainian scientists are working to the benefit of science and economy of foreign countries.

However, in the negative economic situation, which is accompanied with a stable negative balance of foreign trade of Ukraine, the results of migration of the Ukrainian population abroad in search of work give positive results as well. Thus, according to the National Bank of Ukraine, in 2011-2015 Ukrainian migrant workers remitted as much as 34,242 million US dollars to Ukraine [5].

Therefore, as a country that exports its labor resources, Ukraine has positive effects; the primary one is reducing the tension in the domestic labour market, i.e., the decrease in unemployment. Thus, if there were no migration flows of labour resources, the level of unemployment in Ukraine would be 1.6 times higher than the current one [4]. In addition, we can say that due to the migration processes, the state economizes on unemployment benefits. Moreover, Ukraine receives additional source of currency income in the form of remittances from emigrants, which facilitates the improvement in the balance of payments of our country.

The data of the National Bank of Ukraine show that, since 2011, the volume of private money transfers from abroad tended to increase until 2013, then, it has been gradually decreasing. Thus, if in 2011 they accounted for 7019 million US dollars (4.3% of GDP), in 2016 (for three quarters) this figure was 4005 million US dollars (6.3% of GDP) [2]. One more important indicator of the improvement of the country is the fact that GDP showed a positive trend during the analyzed period and increased by 909,198 million hrn. Alongside with the positive effects, there are some negative ones as well, such as increased unemployment and loss of skilled personnel, which reduce the possibilities of national development. A reduction in the number of potential taxpayers is reducing the revenues to the state budget. Thus, we can conclude that international migration has both positive and negative influence on Ukraine.

 

The list of references:

1.      Пуригіна О. Г. Міжнародна міграція : навч. посіб. / О. Г. Пуригіна, С. Е. Сардак. – Д. : Вид–во ДНУ, 2009. – 352 с.

2.      Офіційний сайт Державної служби статистики України [Електронний ресурс]. –  Режим доступу : http://www.ukrstat.org.ua

3.      Офіційний сайт Державної Міграційної Служби України [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу : http://dmsu.gov.ua

4.      Міграційний профіль України 2015. Міграційна служба України [Електронний ресурс] Режим доступу : http://dmsu.gov.ua/images/files/UKR_Migration_%20Profile_2015.pdf