Down the Ukrainian road

Nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s 30 million able-bodied citizens are working abroad. Experts estimate that every year approximately 2.5 million Ukrainians travel to foreign countries for illegal work. Russia ranks first as the host destination for Ukrainian job seekers. In Moscow and Moscow region alone, 200,000 of our compatriots do seasonal work every year. Russia’s ex-prime minister Yegor Gaidar once joked in an interview: “If Ukrainian labor migrants stop coming here, Moscow’s public transport may come screeching to a halt.”

According to the Ukrainian World Congress and the Institute of Demography and Social Studies, in 2005 the countrywise distribution of illegal Ukrainian migrants was approximately as follows: 1 million in Russia, 300,000 in Poland, 200,000-800,000 in Italy, 65,000-150,000 in Portugal, 100,000-400,000 in Spain, 35,000 in Turkey, and 20,000 in the US.

HELLO, ITALY!

Benevento is a typical small town in central Italy. By our standards, it is a medium-sized district center. The sea is a few hours’ drive away, there is no heavy industry, and by all accounts tourists do not patronize it very much. But the residents of this town are very proud of the fact that Benevento is older than Rome. We were shown the local sights in a matter of hours: an ancient theater, a bridge immortalized by the great poet Dante, and the arch of triumph. These are the only vestiges of the past centuries.

But we were interested in seeing the Ukrainians who live and work here. We learned that local Ukrainians gather every Thursday and Sunday in the central park for the two or three hours that they manage to find in their practically round-the-clock work schedule. This is practically the only entertainment for our labor migrants. In the park they exchange news and ask about work opportunities.

It was a Thursday, so we didn’t have to look very long: we unerringly spotted our compatriots in a small crowd of pedestrians. No matter what, there are some subtle things that distinguish our people from Italians. It may be the way they’re dressed or a particular facial expression that makes them stand out from the carefree Italians.

We meet. One of the women is from Zaporizhia and another one is from Stryi. So it is not just western Ukrainians who look for jobs in Italy. More people are starting to arrive and sit down on the park benches. We saw about 20 women from Kherson, Zaporizhia, Symferopol, Lviv oblast, and Ternopil. All of Ukraine is represented here.

Another thing that immediately caught our eye is that the women are mostly middle-aged or older. They came here because they have to raise and educate their children and grandchildren. A woman from Bibrka, Lviv oblast, explained things very simply. “I’m sorry for my children. They should not be breaking up their families and going abroad. But what can they do? My son-in-law is unemployed because there’s no work, my daughter isn’t working. There is no work. But my granddaughter says on the phone, ‘Granny, when are you coming back? We don’t need anymore money. We don’t need anything. Just come back!’”

But the bitter truth is that these wages are often earned at the expense of broken families. More often than not, husbands who stay at home cannot stand their wives being away for three or four years. Jealousy and the inability to understand the heavy cost of wages here are just a few obvious reasons why marriages of long standing break down.

THE FEMININE FACE OF MIGRATION

There are very few Ukrainian males here because it is hard for them to find a job. The only option is construction work. Because there have been many cases of injuries at construction sites, employers are leery of hiring illegal migrants. People talk about “white death” here: as a result of a mishap, people may die in the physical sense but not the juridical one. So it is a happy exception rather than the rule when a husband and wife settle down in a new country or do not divorce after a years-long separation.

In fact, there are not that many ways for women to earn money here. It usually some kind of domestic work, like caring for the elderly, cleaning, cooking, or baby- sitting. There is only one fundamental difference. You can work on a “day and night” or “hourly” basis. As a rule, everybody begins with the “day and night.” It is hard for a novice to find other types of work. This means that for 24 hours she belongs to the family that hired you: you will be cleaning, cooking, caring for old people and children, and so on.

Our migrant workers also have to live with the family. All families are different, and there may be different situations, even if there is mutual trust. They can remind you that you are eating their bread, “accidentally” drop a hint that you are a second-rate person, forbid you to leave the house, or even hide food and other things. It is not so much physically difficult as morally. You end up feeling like a slave and completely dependent on your employer.

“Hourly” work is more privileged. But only those who have more or less settled down and managed to find an apartment or a room, obtained legal permission to work, or found a better job can afford this. But even in this case, people often opt for round-the-clock work.

How much do they earn? They earn between 500 and 1,000 euros, sometimes a little more. But if you take into account that some money has to go for room and board, clothing, transport, or rent, the remaining amount is not that big. Often people economize on a lot of things to save their pennies and send the money home. One woman boasted: “I am still wearing the boots I wore when I came here four years ago!”

They buy their rather modest clothing at the local market. Most of the women have been here for more than a year — as a rule, for three or four but sometimes up to eight years. “I am afraid of returning to Ukraine because I am of a pre-retirement age. What kind of work will I find there? I could only work at the marketplace. But here I still have a job, I am respected here. As soon as I have finished my hours, I can go home. I speak with my granddaughter on the phone every day, and this means we remember each other,’ says the woman from Zaporizhia.

“My mother is a pensioner, and here I also take care of an old woman. They love and respect me here. But I left my own mother behind in Ukraine, and I have to take care of this woman so that my mother can buy medicine. I want to take care of my mother the way I do this woman. I am ashamed that I need money.”

A father and child came up to us. The whole family was here. That’s the rare happy event mentioned above. He had been a very promising singer in Ukraine and had won various international competitions. Now he works on a construction project. Nearly all the women we talked to have a higher education: they are teachers, lawyers, nurses, and mathematicians. The Italians like well-educated workers. They also stand a better chance of finding a job, but... “Ukraine gave me a lot,” the young father says, “but I can’t give my children in Italy what my parents gave me in Ukraine. In Ukraine, I used to do music, volleyball, karate, and anything I wanted. I was helped. I can’t give this to my kids here, so we should go back to Ukraine if we are to build a decent future for ourselves.”

HOMEWARD BOUND, BUT WHEN?

Everybody and everything is on view in this little town. Everybody is aware of the Ukrainian migrant workers. They generally have a good reputation and are not mixed up in anything. On the contrary, they benefit the local government and Italy as a whole. Italian politicians differ on this issue: half of all Italian parliamentarians are in favor of migrant workers, and the other half opposes them, saying that Ukrainians are taking jobs away from Italians.

But while politicians argue, life goes on. Life proves that Italy is benefiting from our guest workers because Italian women will not do this kind of work. Another plus is that most female Ukrainian workers are illegals, so they can be paid much less. Most of the local Ukrainians have overstayed their visas and are simply afraid of going home. As a rule, Italy lets them leave, but when they enter Ukraine, they may get a stamp in their passports, which will make it very difficult for them to go back to Italy. That’s why these Ukrainian women continue to live illegally in Italy for so many years. They maintain contact with Ukraine, their children, and their parents by telephone and mail.

It has been a long time since Ukraine was a country with a population of 52 million. How many of those vanished millions are living in Italy? There are about a hundred of them in the small town of Benevento alone. Then you have Naples, Rome, Milan. The impression is that one million of our compatriots are here. And let’s not forget about Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, and Russia.

Does Ukraine fairly appraise the work of these people? Kopeck by kopeck, they send millions of dollars to Ukraine every year. They pay taxes on this money, which helps found new banks. Guest workers use this money to provide their children with a higher education, care for their parents, build houses for themselves, and set up their own businesses. The money helps create new jobs. In other words, this money is doing many things that the state should do — and quite legally at that. The money our labor migrants send to their relatives in Ukraine accounts for up to 10 percent of the GDP. These billions of dollars are helping to revitalize the domestic market, but we should hardly opt for the way of Mexico, which boosted its entire economy thanks to the earnings of migrants working in the US.

Experts believe that the huge labor emigration now poses a serious threat to Ukraine’s future economic development. The fact that millions of our skilled compatriots are abroad will start having an adverse effect on our country’s economic growth rate in the next two or three years. Throughout the regions investors are already complaining of a shortage of skilled labor, perhaps the main thing that attracts investors to Ukraine.

Almost all the compatriots whom we met in Italy plan on coming home. But every year they have to stay longer. One of the women wants to buy an apartment in her native Ternopil, but housing prices shoot up faster than she can earn. This happens every year. Not enough money again means another year in Italy. Another woman’s daughter is a student, who will soon face unemployment and then starvation wages. There is no one to support the family. Another Ukrainian woman is simply afraid that she will not find a job at her age. So she will stay another year in Italy.