On March 21, 2014, the seminar entitled Political Unrest in Ukraine: Socio-Economic Causes and Individual Responses was held in the premises of the Open Society Foundation in Bratislava.
The seminar organised by the Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI) within the project Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Partner Countries, was launched by the co-founder and the scientific director of the institute, Martin Kahanec, who introduced the theme as well as the main speaker of the event – Ganna Vakhita from Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Economic Institute. Vakhita presented the main findings of the study The Relations between Education and Migration in Ukraine which she prepared for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) together with Tom Coupe (ILO).
The seminar focused mainly on the following topics: what factors contribute to the economic and political divide in Ukraine; what the role of ethnicity and language is; what individual responses can be expected; and how the increased migration could affect Slovakia.
According to the presented outcomes of the study, education plays a minor role in the migration from Ukraine, although it affects decision-making about the destination country. The findings of the study imply that migration from Ukraine is mainly caused by the lack of job opportunities in the country as a result of unfavourable economic situation. Educational policy reforms could have an impact on the Ukrainian population with higher skills, however, it would not affect low skilled workers to a large extent.
Proposed solutions which would help the country of origin – Ukraine, destination countries and last but not least migrants themselves include implementation of migration management measures. The measures should be related especially to transferability of skills of migrant workers (diploma recognition, progress on Bologna process, establishment of a system of internships abroad etc.) as well as to elevating knowledge about the destination country including language, customs and legislation especially through language courses and courses of socio-cultural orientation. Last but not least, the state institutions should continue with their involvement in promoting benefits of regular migration in order to decrease irregular migration.