Migration and migration policy in Ukraine: transformations of the age of independence

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the changes in the migration situation in Ukraine during the independence period and the stages of formation of the migration management system, as well as the creating on this basis of proposals for further improvement of migration policy of Ukraine. The article shows that after the proclamation of independence, the democratization of public life, ensuring human rights, including rights to free movement, led to the emergence of completely new conditions for international mobility of the population of Ukraine. At the beginning, the decisive factors in migration movements were political ones (due to the collapse of a single state). Migration was often ethnic in nature. Natives of Ukraine en masse returned from other post-Soviet states, including those who have undergone repressive resettlement. However, over time, socio-economic factors of migration have become crucial. Labor migration abroad has become a strategy for improving the well-being of many households. The vector of migration gradually transformed from east, the only possible in Soviet times, to west. Short-term circular migration remains the dominant model of migration behavior. At the same time, the tendency to transform temporary migration into permanent migration is growing, which threatens to lose part of the labor and intellectual potential. The formation of migration policy and legislation aims to ensure regulated and safe migration, protection of migrants’ rights. At the first stage of state building it was necessary to eliminate restrictions on freedom of movement of Soviet times, to implement into law the generally accepted norms for the protection of human rights. Further improvement of migration policy was aimed at taking into account European standards, should have contributed to Ukraine’s European integration. The new challenges in the field of migration are related to the COVID-19 pandemic, due to restrictions on cross-border mobility. In this regard, support for the return of migrants to their homeland, providing them with assistance in reintegration, and creating conditions for the investment use of funds earned abroad is of central importance.