Guest workers’ “Olympic” hope

On September 20 MPs supported and passed a governmental bill “On Amending Some Laws of Ukraine” (concerning Ukrainians abroad). This document is making alterations to effective laws defining main principles of cooperation with Ukrainians abroad as well as their rights, duties, and freedoms, says the official government website.

The parliament excogitated se-veral ways to return “prodigal” citizens back home. “A foreign Ukrai-nian, who stays in Ukraine legally, enjoys the same rights and freedoms and incurs to the same obligations as a ci-tizen of Ukraine, except for cases set by the Constitution, laws of Ukraine, or international treaties which are proven to be obligatory by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. A person that gained the foreign Ukrainian status has a right to work at enterprises, companies, and orgznizations or conduct other labor activity within the legislative framework applicable for Ukrainian citizens,” reads the document. Thus if, for example, a Ukrainian that lived and worked abroad for a long time and was granted citizenship of another country wants to come back home, the abovementioned bill (in case it gets approved) will guarantee his or her equality in rights and duties with other Ukrainian citizens.

Besides, the document also proposes to allocate annual state grants for higher education within the quotas set for foreigners and individuals without citizenship. The governmental bill also says that individuals who have gained the foreign Ukrainian status are entitled to the citizenship of Ukraine according to the Law “On the Citizenship of Ukraine.”

While MPs are debating, the State Agency for Investment and National Projects declares that they know efficient measures to bring labor migrants back home. In particular, Vladyslav Kaskiv, the head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects, says that the implementation of “Olympic hope-2022” project (by the way, an Austrian company has just won a feasibility study tender for it) will contribute to the creation of new jobs in western Ukraine and bringing the gastarbeiters back. The implementation of the project involves the development of Olympic infrastructure with the budget money, while investments are to be used to create new tourist infrastructure. Thus, “Olympic hope” is a very good prerequisite for the return of gastarbeiters, because implementation of projects like this one can offer Ukrainian workers decent salaries and motivate them to come back home, says Kaskiv.