Youth migration in Ukraine and Lviv region: trends, problems, regulatory priorities

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of youth migration of Ukraine and Lviv region. The scale of youth emigration of Ukraine during the period of Full-Scale War is determined, based on available data and expert assessments. A review of sociological surveys allowed to identify the general characteristics of youth migration of Ukraine: the sensitivity of the youth migration potential to revolutionary events; a significant share of people with children among refugees abroad; the development of new, in addition to Poland, attractive European markets of educational services, which increases competition for educational institutions of Ukraine; a higher level of reluctance to return among young people than among other age groups. The considered sociological surveys also confirmed the problem of information lack in a regional context. Since in war conditions it is advisable to increase the functionality of rear regions in integrating the youth potential from front-line and near-front-line regions, the trends and factors of youth migration are analyzed using the example of the Lviv region. As a result, the key problems of these processes are identified: the problem of high youth migration potential in the border region to the EU, which requires improving the quality of educational and employment services; the problem of a low level of re-emigration intentions of youth who have gone abroad; the problem of the lack of a regional migration policy for youth as a counterweight to the effective policy of other states in attracting youth from Ukraine; the problem of the lack of systematic measures to integrate youth from among internally displaced persons in the region; the problem of unused potential of educational immigration to the region. The identified problems are the basis for determining measures of the operational action plan of regional youth policy in order to reduce migration losses.