Desire to leave is not the same as leaving, but…
Survey has shown that 91 percent of university graduates plan to emigrate or are considering employment prospects abroad
The vast majority (91 percent) of highly qualified young professionals with higher education think about getting a job abroad rather than in Ukraine. This was shown in the results of the survey conducted in November of 2012 by international HR portal hh.ua. They have interviewed 5,017 respondents 60 percent of which were male and 40 percent – female. The average age of the respondents is 30 years. From all the respondents 77 percent have complete higher education, while 11 percent have incomplete higher education, 2 percent have Ph.D. degree, and the same number of graduate students. It is interesting that people working in economic (34 percent), technical (21 percent), IT (11 percent), and humanitarian (10 percent) spheres think that way.
The main reason for that young Ukrainians have been increasingly considering living and working in other countries is poor economic and political situation in our country. “It is true not only about university students, 30-year-old professionals express serious intentions to look for a job abroad, especially in Europe, the USA, and Canada,” said the report of the hh.ua portal.
The vast majority of respondents explain their desire to leave the country to work abroad by the fact that they do not see any good future for themselves and their families in Ukraine. Low wages, lack of conditions for full implementation of professional skills, unstable political situation – those are the main “roots of evil” of the labor migration in youth.
Almost half of the respondents (48 percent) said that they have serious intentions to leave Ukraine, 43 percent of the respondents admitted that they consider such possibility from time to time, and only 4 percent do not plan to leave Ukraine. However, only 5 percent of the respondents want to use the study abroad to stay there to work. The most popular reason to stay home is the fear to become a person of “second class” in a foreign country (35 percent), as well as patriotism and desire to work for the good of their country. Only a quarter of those who do not want to leave Ukraine are satisfied with their work in home country.
The most popular destinations among potential migrants are Europe (63 percent), the United States and Canada (42 percent). Interestingly, one fifth of all the respondents plan to leave Ukraine and migrate to Australia, while 14 percent would like to go to Russia. A total of 16 percent of the respondents said that they didn’t care about where to go as long as they’d have better living conditions there. Asia (8 percent), South America (5 percent), and Africa (3 percent) are less popular, although there are those who would like to migrate there too.
For those who want to go abroad, age is of great importance: 40 percent of respondents believe that it is better to emigrate without a family at a young age, while 9 percent think that it should be better done while you are still young but have a family already. However, a significant proportion of respondents (36 percent) are certain that the age and marital status do not matter in this situation. Another 15 percent believe that young people should use their studies abroad as a “springboard” for a career. Moreover, despite the high percentage of potential “education migration,” most Ukrainians still do not consider studying abroad the easiest way to build a career abroad. Specifically, 40 percent are not certain that Western education will help them to stay in the country where they studied. Another 27 percent believe that such education is not crucial when it comes to emigration intention. Only one third of respondents expect to build a career abroad after graduation. At the same time, 91 percent of the respondents have never received education abroad.
COMMENTARY
Volodymyr LANOVY, former Minister of Economy of Ukraine:
“People live where they have a possibility of getting a job, earning money, and providing for the comfortable living of their family. This is the main reason for labor migration. Migration intentions are especially high today because young people who graduated from universities and started their own family can not find a job. While before the most of the unemployed were the former workers of the stopped Soviet plants, today the new wave of unemployment is picking up pace. It shows the mood of today’s youth.
“How can we avoid labor migration? There are several options. The first is to create opportunities for small business development. In particular, there should be a tax-exempt period (especially at the initial stage of running a business), special loans, etc. Development of small and medium businesses is a priority for the economy. It creates opportunities for high-tech production, which are the most modernist sectors and the universities train most of the young specialists taking this into account. Second, we must engage in this process the industries that are interested in a large number of new workers, such as agriculture.
“These are all precautionary measures to prevent migration. But don’t forget that they can also encourage those, who already left Ukraine to come back to their home country. For example, in Poland after two years of reforms in the early 1990s labor migrants began returning home. It all depends on us. In fact, people should not be leaving Ukraine at all because it is one of the most promising countries in Europe in terms of investment development.”
