Ukraine needs to fight for its people: why migration policy is becoming a matter of rebuilding the country

Socportal visited the discussion of the preliminary version of the "Strategy of the State Migration Policy of Ukraine until 2035" from the Migration Policy Office and highlighted the key problems.

Migration as a question of economic survival

Ukraine is entering a period when competition for people is becoming no less important than attracting investment, experts say. The loss of labour and intellectual potential due to the Russian invasion and subsequent migration for the state means regional disproportions and additional threats to the post-war economy. If migration processes remain spontaneous, Ukraine may face a situation where the restoration of territories, industry, social sphere, and infrastructure will be limited not so much by money as by the lack of people.

At the same time, the experts emphasised that the return of Ukrainians cannot be the result of pressure or administrative restrictions. People will return if they see a safe, understandable, and dignified prospect for themselves. This means housing, jobs, access to social services, education for children, medical care, recognition of qualifications, and normal contact with state institutions. However, the discussion emphasised how many obstacles Ukraine has on this path.

Working alone does not solve the problem of integration

One of the central themes of the discussion is the relationship between the needs of the economy and human needs. Ukraine may indeed need additional labour force, but the task of the state and the market is not just to "move" people to where there are vacancies. It is necessary to create conditions under which a person can live and work sustainably.

Irina Maidannik, a senior researcher at the Ptukha Institute for Demography and Quality of Life Research, formulated this problem through the contradiction between the employer's logic and the basic needs of the employee.

Human needs and the needs of the economy are complementary. Man has a need to work to fulfil his needs, and the economy has a need for people, she said.

But, according to her, at a certain stage these interests may diverge, if the employer sets one of the main tasks to minimise costs, primarily on wages. Then a situation arises in which a person works full-time, but still cannot cover basic needs and needs social assistance.

This is an important signal for migration policy: employment alone does not mean integration. If a job does not give a person resilience, it does not remove him or her from a vulnerable situation. A displaced person needs not only a vacancy, but also housing, transport, access to medicine, a school for a child, social services, and the opportunity to build a life in a new community, not temporarily, but for years.

IDPs in the labour market: vulnerability, exploitation and the role of monitoring

According to Olena Konovalova of the State Service of Ukraine on Labour Issues, state control should ensure formalisation of labour relations and healthy working conditions.

She stressed that these guarantees should apply to all workers, but displaced persons are particularly vulnerable. The reason is forced resettlement, stress, lack of stability, and a weaker negotiating position in employment.

When a person is under prolonged stress, he or she may not understand all the risks, Konovalova explained.

In such conditions, the offer "to work without registration and then we'll see" becomes not just a violation of labour law. It can be the first step to exploitation. Konovalova recalled that during migration - not only in Ukraine, but in any country - the risks of forced labour, labour exploitation, and even human trafficking increase.

Among the tools that the government can use, she mentioned the risk-oriented approach. Its essence is not to check all employers equally, but to identify those who have a higher probability of violations. For example, if the amount of work cannot be performed by the number of people officially registered at the enterprise, it may indicate the use of undeclared labour.

Another tool is informational visits by inspectors to employers. These are not general webinars or publications for everyone, but direct contact with a specific employer. The inspector sees the real conditions and explains what needs to be corrected: formalise workers, provide protective clothing, observe holidays, prevent mobbing and discrimination.

According to Konovalova, such visits can be more effective than formal inspections, because the employer realises that the next visit may not be informational.

Trade unions as mediators between employee and employer

Oleg Borisov, representative of the trade union "Proftbud", noted that trade unions can be intermediaries between the employee and the employer, assisting VPOs with consultations, labour contracts, adaptation at new workplaces, and protection of rights.

We still play a key role in the integration of VPOs because we ensure the protection of their labour rights," Borisov said.

According to him, IDPs are people who suffered from the war more than many others, so they need not only formal protection, but also practical support. The issue of housing is especially acute.

Borisov emphasised that the housing problem for IDPs has not actually been solved to the extent necessary. He gave the example of how trade unions help people to acquire micron skills in the construction sector so that they can repair the housing they rent or buy. This shows how concrete the barriers to integration are: people do not need abstract support, but the ability to arrange their daily lives.

What should be the integration of IDPs

Ksenia Getz, lawyer and representative of the charitable foundation "Right to Zakhist", linked the integration of IDPs with the demographic sustainability of Ukraine. According to her, if the state does not create conditions for internally displaced persons inside the country, it may stimulate further departure of Ukrainians abroad.

She also drew attention to the challenge that may arise after the termination of temporary protection for Ukrainians abroad and stressed that this factor should be reflected in strategic planning.

Separately, Getz raised the issue of residents of the temporarily occupied territories. According to her, Ukraine should not lose sight of the millions of citizens who remain in occupation.

This is a demographic potential that Ukraine systematically misses and does not take into account, she stressed.

Getz also warned of the risk of competition between different groups of the affected population. Ukrainians abroad, IDPs, and residents of temporarily occupied territories should not be opposed to each other. If state policy creates the perception that one group is being prioritised at the expense of another, it can destroy social cohesion.

Poverty as a reason for returning to dangerous regions

In turn, Olha Novikova, deputy director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, recalled that after 2014, there was a specialised ministry for temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons. Now, when the number of IDPs is much higher, there is no separate ministry, and this creates a problem of targeting and responsibility.

The most painful issue, according to her, is the return of IDPs to the occupied territories or active combat zones. She gave the reasons for such return directly: poverty, inability to pay rent, and lack of work.

This is the biggest failure of our integration policy. The main reason for the return is poverty, inability to pay for rented housing and lack of work, Novikova said.

According to her assessment, such a return means the loss of labour for Ukraine and, at the same time, endangers the lives of the people themselves. She suggested that the strategy should include a separate goal to prevent forced re-emigration of citizens to the temporarily occupied territories due to their economic inability to provide for their basic needs in the Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Novikova also proposed to monitor a separate indicator - the level of return to the occupied territories for economic reasons. Such monitoring would make it possible to see not only the fact of displacement, but also the reasons that push people back into danger.

What breaks down in practice

Antonina Berezovenko, director of the Move Ukraine charitable foundation, said in her turn that her organisation helps IDPs with housing and accompanies people after their placement. According to Berezovenko, the structure of resettlement groups has changed noticeably. If at the beginning of the full-scale war it was mostly civilians, now IDPs increasingly include veterans, including veterans with disabilities, orphans, and people with very different emotional states and expectations.

If at the beginning of the war it was civilians, today it is a very mixed group, Berezovenko noted.

Universal solutions do not work the same for everyone, she said. The needs of a resettlement community in one locality may differ significantly from those in another. Therefore, research is needed not only at the macro level, but also at the micro level - in specific communities where resettlers live.

Berezovenko also stressed that charitable organisations often close gaps in public policy. But system integration cannot be based only on foundations and volunteers. The state needs programmes that take into account different groups of IDPs, their real needs, and long-term adaptation.

Fighting for the people is Ukraine's main task

The main difficulty of the future migration strategy is its scale. The future strategy must answer several questions at once:

• how to create conditions for the voluntary return of Ukrainians from abroad;

• how to help internally displaced persons to establish themselves in new communities;

• how to reduce labour emigration;

• how to utilise the potential of Ukrainians abroad;

• how to attract those foreigners who can be useful for the economy and society.

In most cases, the answer is security, jobs, housing, education for children, fair treatment, and trust in institutions. Therefore, in the coming years, migration policy will become a test of the state's ability to think strategically.

Earlier, Socportal wrote about a new study on Ukrainian migrants, which shows who exactly left, how Ukrainians integrate in Europe, and what can influence people's decision to return home. As well as what the state can do for this, and whether those who became part of the Ukrainian diaspora abroad help the country.