Will those who left due to the full-scale invasion return? When will it be safe to live again in border areas? How to reintegrate into Ukrainian society children who have been studying abroad for almost two years and actively communicate in Polish, Czech, English, German? All this was discussed in an interview with "RBK-Ukraine" (Styler project) by the head of the migration research department of the M.V. Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Economic Sciences Oleksiy Poznyak.
The scientist outlined trends in migration processes in 2023: "In 2023, we can talk not about departure or return, but about trips in various directions. I mean short-term arrivals of migrants home. Departures of those living in the border zone to neighboring countries and back. At this time, the contingent of external migrants has mostly stabilized. If we do not count people who were forced to leave or left voluntarily for the aggressor country, there are almost 5 million of our citizens in the EU and North America. I think the real number is closer to European statistics than to calculations based on State Border Guard Service data on the number of border crossings, according to which the difference between the number of departures and arrivals is 1.8 million. Regarding their intentions, various surveys show that the share of those intending to return is decreasing."
Oleksiy Poznyak also outlined the prospects for Ukraine's migration attractiveness: "The level of Ukraine's attractiveness for migrants will largely depend on how the situation with foreign investments develops and how the economic situation evolves. It is clear that people migrate in search of a better life from poorer countries to richer ones. Exceptions may be people who come for popular specialties and are offered large sums of money. Those who have already achieved everything in their profession at home and are ready to change their environment, share experience may come. This can be a certain social mission. But such migration will not be massive."
Read the full interview text
Source: media platform "RBK-Ukraine"