InterNations, a global information site for expatriates, has found in its Expat Insider 2015 survey that Ukrainians who leave their homeland are better educated and know more languages than other expatriates. And many of them make much more in other countries than they did in Ukraine.
Some 72 percent of Ukrainian expats have a postgraduate degree, compared
to the global average of 48 percent. Ukrainians who live and work abroad also
have a strong command of foreign languages, with some 60 percent speaking four
or more languages, including their native tongue. And more than half – 56
percent –of Ukrainian expatriates speak the local language of their host
country at least fairly well.
Russia’s 18-month war against Ukraine and decreasing living standards
have contributed to the decision of many Ukrainians to leave, according to the
survey.
The decision to leave Ukraine pays off for many. The survey found that
eight out of 10 Ukrainian expats have a foreign income that is higher than at
home.
“About four in 10 even state that their (salary) is a lot higher than
that,” according to the survey results, which didn’t provide dollar figures.
But 72 percent of Ukrainian expats are “generally satisfied” with their life
abroad.
But the ongoing brain drain is a threat to the Ukrainian economy, said
Oleksiy Pozniak, head of the migration department at the Kyiv-based
Demographics and Sociology Institute.
“The emigration of highly-educated, proficient people will have a very
negative impact on the economy of the country,” he told the Kyiv Post. “The
biggest problem is that we are losing unique and talented professionals.”
Physicist Lidiya Osinkina, a 28-year-old native of Kyiv who currently
lives Munich, Germany, is one such young professional who moved abroad. Last
year she obtained a Ph.D. in physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in
Munich and found a job at a local research center that develops equipment for
molecular pathogen detection.
“Working according to my major was always very important for me,” she
told the Kyiv Post. “As a biophysicist I would have been hard pressed to find a
job in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian expats are mostly young, averaging 32 year old, while the
global average is 41, according to the survey. There are three times more women
than men among them.
Pozniak of the Demographics and Sociology Institute said that Ukrainian
women leave the country for economic reasons.
“It’s not because they want to arrange their personal lives, but because
of gender discrimination in employment (in Ukraine). Women in Ukraine have
fewer career opportunities than in developed countries. They earn less than men
when holding similar positions,” the expert said.
Victoria Martsenyuk, a 30-year-old public relations specialist, moved to
Denmark two years ago. While in Kyiv she was a senior copywriter, in Denmark
she works as a nanny for a Danish family. Despite cloudy career prospects in
Denmark, Martsenyuk doen’t plan to come back to Ukraine.
“My husband and I sometimes discussed the opportunities of coming back
to Kyiv. Even though my income in Kyiv would always allow me to use a taxi at
almost all times, I would prefer well-developed city transportation, including
bicycle infrastructure,” she told the Kyiv Post.
Since the early 1990s, more than 10 million Ukrainians have left the
country and most of them will likely never return, experts say.
One expat, Oleksandr Romanko, went to study in Canada 12 years ago and
now combines work as a professor at the University of Toronto with being a
senior research analyst at a local company. He does not plan to return to
Ukraine as “being here (in Canada) I can do for Ukraine more than if I lived in
Ukraine.”
More than 20 percent of Ukrainians want to emigrate, according to a
survey conducted by the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian institute of Social
Studies on March 13-20.
Scientist Osinkina also has no plans to return to Ukraine.
“After I saw how well-equipped European laboratories are, I decided to
stay and work there,” she said.
The Expat Insider 2015 survey was conducted from Feb. 23 to March 9,
with 97 Ukrainian respondents taking part in the survey of 14,300 expatriates from 170
nationalities living in 195 countries or territories.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
