As a citizen of Ukraine (which is a donor country in terms of economic migration) and a postgraduate student in Greece (which is a receiving country of Ukrainian and Moldovan labor migrants),I am interested in push-pull factors for citizens of the mentioned states to choose Greece as a destination country, immigration policy obstacles and the indirect assistance of migrants from Ukraine and Moldova to Greek economy.
Selected tables from this survey (Source: etf.europa.eu/pubmgmt.nsf/(getAttachment)/.../$File/NOTE85UBH8.pdf), that are presented in this post, give us general mood about the attitude and ideas of Moldovans and Ukrainians towards emigration in search for better life conditions. This research investigated the links between migration and skills, by questioning 2,000 respondents each from Albania, Egypt, Moldova, Tunisia and Ukraine and focused on “potential migrants” in the age group 18 – 40 years as well as on “returning migrants” who left their countries of origin aged 18 or over, lived and worked abroad continuously for at least six months and returned at least three months before being interviewed. The motivations, expectations and experiences expressed by the two groups of respondents provide an excellent and representative overview of the dynamics of Moldovan and Ukrainian emigration and return migration also in the context of the highly qualified skilled workers. It is obvious that the tendency for leaving the mentioned countries is increasing and in my opinion the most sad of all is that the majority of potential migrants are the youngest citizens who belong to the age category that is usually called the "future" of any country...
In case of donor countries, the push factors and profits for migrants and immigrants were analyzed below, but what made me wonder after watching the video by Dr. Patrick Dixon is that if European countries, due to the ageing crisis in Europe and the necessity for demographic increase pretend not to “see” and do not count the illegal immigrants arriving in their countries, because of the above mentioned benefits, why wouldn`t Moldovan and Ukrainian governments pretend not to “see” the outflow of the illegal work migrants from these countries, again because of the well-known benefits (remittances, economic development through immigrants earning: construction of new houses in Chisinau, etc.)? In this case the answer why there is such a huge amount of illegal Moldovan and Ukrainian migrants in Europe would be quite clear and, knowing the corruption system and irresponsibility of Ukrainian and Moldovan border guards, this assumption sounds undeniable to me. The question is how, given the presence of EUBAM in the border regions of Moldova and Ukraine, the illegal migration from the examined countries is getting higher and higher in numbers? In my opinion it is clear that illegal migration is profitable for both parties, which makes its tracing even more complicated because both parties are ignoring the fact.
Κι εδώ το ζευγάρι δείχνει μια ιδιαιτερότητα, αφού αυτό που απαιτεί είναι η νταντά να είναι… ξενύχτισα! Η Ανίτα είναι πολύ δραστήρια στα του σπιτιού και τη γυναίκα τη χρησιμοποιεί κυρίως ως βοηθό. Θέλει να είναι έμπειρη νταντά και να αντέχει το ξενύχτι αφού ο Νίκος Καρβέλας όλη νύχτα γράφει και παίζει μουσική! Όσο για το… Καρβελάκι; Έχει συνηθίσει τους ήχους και δεν ξυπνάει με τίποτα. Για την… άυπνη Ουκρανή οικιακή βοηθό η Ανίτα διαθέτει 900 ευρώ το μήνα.
Σάκης Ρουβάς – Κάτια Ζυγούλη
Έχουν μια οικονόμο από την Ουκρανία, που την αμείβουν με 1.200 ευρώ το μήνα για τις δουλειές του σπιτιού και μια Αγγλίδα για τη μικρή Αναστασία που πριν την είχε η Μαντόνα, η οποία αμείβεται με πολύ περισσότερα. Ασχολούνται και οι δυο με το παιδί και δεν τσακώνονται ποτέ. Το πάνω χέρι στο σπίτι έχει η Κάτια Ζυγούλη, αλλά στα υπόλοιπα καπετάνιος είναι ο Σάκης.
Η ΦΕΤΙΝΗ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ, 2010, ΚΑΘΙΕΡΩΘΗΚΕ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΗ ΕΝΩΣΗ ως χρονιά αφιερωμένη σε θέματα για τον ρατσισμό, τους ξένους εργάτες και τους μετανάστες, σε όλη την Ευρώπη και κατ’ επέκταση και στην Κύπρο.
Με αφορμή αυτό, η νέα θεατρική ομάδα «Φώτος Φωτιάδης» παρουσιάζει την κωμωδία «Αλλοδαποί τζε Τόπακες» του Ανδρέα Κουκκινίδη, σε σκηνοθεσία του Φώτου Φωτιάδη. Η ιστορία ξεκινάει όταν μια «ιδιαίτερη» κοπέλα από την Ουκρανία φθάνει στο σπίτι της κ. Μαρίας, σε ένα χωριό της Κύπρου, με σκοπό να εργαστεί στο σπίτι της ως οικιακή βοηθός.
Η Τατιάνα, όπως ονομάζεται η Ουκρανή, από την πρώτη στιγμή φαίνεται πως δεν είναι μια απλή οικιακή βοηθός όπως όλες οι άλλες που είχε η κ. Μαρία, μια και μιλάει άπταιστα Αρχαία Ελληνικά, μια γλώσσα που δεν γνωρίζουν καν οι Έλληνες κάτοικοι του χωριού. Η δικαιολογία αυτού είναι ότι η Ουκρανή κοπέλα στη χώρα της ήταν καθηγήτρια Ελληνικών.
I enjoyed a lot reading these three articles, because apart from my research for the university course, it was curious for me personally, as for a Ukrainian female, to see how Ukrainian women are seen in Greek society. The common element in these three articles is a domestic worker from Ukraine, either in real life or in a plot of a theatrical play and TV series. Certainly, the case of the theater performances in Greece and Cyprus points to the fact that a Ukrainian female domestic worker is a common phenomenon in these Greek speaking countries and this specific nationality wouldn`t have been chosen if Greeks were not aware of the 1. Existence of Ukrainian domestic workers in Greek families` households 2. The stereotypes about females from Ukraine related to their country of origin, their appearance, their behavior, their funny way to express themselves in the foreign to them Greek language - all of which, I assume, are presented with ironic and humoristic overtones (otherwise the role of a Ukrainian domestic worker wouldn`t have been used in a comedy theatrical play). (See more details on this topic in the post"What are the problems of Ukrainian and Moldovan migrants in Greece?)
The case of big Greek show-biz stars, who have their children taken care of by Ukrainian domestic workers, is very indicative. Taking into consideration the current economic crisis in Greece where the minimal salary was reduced to approximately 600 Euros per month, the idea of Ukrainian domestic workers gaining 900 Euros and 1.200 Euros per month would sound outrageous to any Greek woman (especially unemployed). According to most major surveys, work migrants from Ukraine in the countries of EU, including Greece, are females and are engaged in domestic work, taking care of children and of the elderly. This fact, on the one hand, indicates the position of (often high educated) Ukrainian women in European countries (e.g. the mentioned Ukrainian domestic worker Tatiana, who speaks Ancient Greek) who are forced to do unqualified work abroad despite their education background, and on the other hand the position of an emancipated Greek woman who has other priorities in her life rather than simply to be a mother and a spouse and who is able to hire a domestic worker. The positive effect for the domestic worker is the ability to help her family back home by sending a part of her salary in the form of remittances, and for the Greek mother as well who, with the help of the migrant, has more time for her personal life, career and intellectual development. The most important negative effect, though, is the common outcome of any transnational family: the partial isolation from the family, the inability of real participation in the lives of her spouse and children, the effect on wife-husband relations in terms of gender (the man gradually stops to be the “breadwinner” and the woman is getting used to take up new, more “male” roles), inability to make more children, etc.
When we speak about transnational families in Greece, it is important to mention two ways for Ukrainian (and Moldovan) migrant worker`s family to travel to its overseas relative: 1. By tourist/guest visa 2. By family reunion in the country of the work migrant`s employment. In the first case we speak about Consulates and Embassies which issue Schengen visas, based on specific number of papers provided by the inviting part (in case of a parent and a child, they require the parent abroad to prove his ability to cover the expenses of their childs` short visit, who is allowed to stay in Greece for no more than three months at a time as well as guarantee his return back home). In case of family reunion the procedure requires that the parent abroad has been working and living in Greece for at least two years and has all the necessary financial/housing/insurance, etc. conditions for bringing his family members to his destination country. The majority of legal work migrants tend to choose the second option, because in case of short-term guest visits by family members, basing on Schengen requirements and peculiar guidelines for Visa Officers of Greek Consulates and Embassy in Ukraine*, incredibly often such applicants get refused to get visas, because of the Visa Officer`s suspicions that they may stay in Greece illegally. The latter contributes first and foremost to disappearance of close ties between the members of transnational families.
* There is the Embassy of Moldova in Greece, but there is no Greek Embassy or Consulate in Moldova. For this reason Greek Schengen visas for Moldovan citizens are issued by the Embassy of Greece in Ukraine and by the Consulate General of Greece in Odessa.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES FOR DETAILED INFORMATION: 1. Ukraine remittances back home: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2010/07/30/ukraine-remittances-home-are-no-small-deal/
Migration to Greece is a relatively recent phenomenon and the shift from emigration to immigration country caught Greece unprepared in terms of migration policy. In spite of the increasing demand for domestic workers in Greece, the Greek government does not issue work permits for domestic work (unlike Italy and Spain). As a result, a great volume of these women live and work illegally in the so called "informal sector" of Greece, what makes it times more difficult to calculate how many work migrants from Ukraine and Moldova live in Greece. According to the table of the Immigrants Union of Greece, Ukrainian migrants come up to 4,2% of the total Greek population and Moldovan migrants - to 2,19% relatively.
According to Census (2001), there were 41.532 foreign workers (65% of the total volume of migrant workers) in the Attiki Prefecture, out of whom 38.815 were females, out of whom 3.105 were of Ukrainian origin. In order to understand the general image of a Ukrainian work migrant in Greece, here is a brief profile (based on results of the survey by Psimmenos and Skamnakis):
Employment as: domestic workers, performing various household chores
domestic workers, taking care of children and the elderly;
Social security: 82% are socially secure (their testimonials);
Working hours: 81% work over 40 hours per week.
Average salary per month: 607 Euro (from 400 Euro to 1.000 Euro)
It is important to point out that the increasing needs in the care sphere are the result of the Greek ageing society with low fertility rates as well as female liberation and their integration in labour sectors. Therefore, female migrants facilitate Greek womens` employment, what contributes to changes in gender relations between Greek man and Greek women as well as changes in socio-economic structure of Greece.
In my opinion, the reasons for choosing Ukrainian female migrants for this particular job and not Moldovan ones, are based on the well-known stereotype of a modest, obedient Slavonic woman who is a caring mother and a good housewife. Therefore, a Greek mother when choosing a babysitter for her child would give a kind of "an advance of trust" to a Ukrainian domestic worker rather than to a Moldovan one.
Due to the fact that the majority of female work migrants from Moldova were working in agricultural sector back home, they are mostly engaged in the agricultural sector in Greece either on short-term base (seasonal work) or on long-term base (permanent employment).
Therefore, the first important conclusion that we can make is that even though normally both Ukrainian and Moldovan work migrants originate from rural areas of their home countries, Ukrainian females are usually employed as domestic workers and care for the elderly and children, while Moldovan females are usually engaged in the agricultural sector.
The phenomenon of migration as a positive or negative process is debatable, but in the case of a Moldovan migrant working in Israel it is definitely positive: with the money saved from legal work, caring for the elderly, she managed to buy an apartment in the outskirts of Chisinau (capital of Moldova) and what is important - is planning on legal re-employment abroad. As we see from the video, the European Union has undertaken certain important initiatives in the region, by establishing organizations which help returned work migrants find legal work in Moldova as well as EUBAM, a fully funded by the EU mission with headquarters in Odessa (Ukraine) which works on the Moldovan and Ukrainian border an advisory and technical body and aims to work with Moldova and Ukraine to harmonise their border management standards and procedures with those prevalent in EU member states and promote of cross-border cooperation in the framework of the European Nrighbourhood and Partnership Initiatives.
Despite the EU initiative of organizing an office for employment of the returnees, I believe that it will not give high results, as the majority of Moldovans of working age will prefer higher salaries abroad rather than employment at home with very limited financial opportunities.
The issue that Europe has been worried about recently is ageing crisis and thus it is clear that these are the immigrants who are to make up for the demographic decrease (see the video on Migration, Immigration and ageing crisis in Europe, 19/03). In this respect, on the one hand, immigrants help European population grow and on the other hand Europe achieves relatively cheap labour power which contributes to its economic development. In this way, the case of two Moldovan students from the video who are studying in Brussels is curious: the young girl states that the investments which she makes into her education abroad will help her find decent work in Chisinau. The fact that a Moldovan student doesn’t consider finding ways to stay in Belgium sounds encouraging, as her native country is in need for young professionals to boost the country`s development. On the other hand, unfortunately, personally I have strong doubts that her dreams will come true and, after having got used to civilized environment, she will be eager to return to the dull environment of poverty and misery of Moldova, and thus most probably will become one of the many legal or illegal migrants in Europe.
In this video two important interdependent questions rise: 1. children and transnational families (= families where one or more members live and work abroad), 2. remittances and transnational family welfare.
The astonishing fact that little children, whose parents are forced to work abroad and therefore are taken care of by their grandparents who hardly make the ends meet arise for our consideration such painful issues as the future of the children of immigrants. Obviously, in the case of Moldova, even with the financial aid of their parents through remittances, these children have scarce opportunities for proper education and breeding and, despite of living with their grandparents, are virtually left alone. The psychological trauma of being deprived of parents` love, attention, guidance and control will leave a clear imprint not only on their personal lives but, respectively, on society in general. The practice of leaving children behind in the care of distant relatives, neighbours or even alone is rather widespread in Moldova and Western Ukraine, where the scale of external work migration is large.
From this video we find out that 1/3 of children in the village school have one parent working abroad and 1/5 have both parents overseas. With the first attempt of comparison of Moldova and Ukraine in terms of transnational families, here I would like to provide a short statistics of Ukrainian transnational families: according to a sociological survey, which studied a situation of Ukrainian females working in Italy and Greece, 94 % of interviewed women left their children behind in Ukraine. Most often children stay with their fathers, but in families of mothers or both parents working abroad, 66 % are left behind in the care of grandparents, and 33 % more stay unattended. Thus, we can come to a logic conclusion that in spite of being significantly better off than children of parents working in Ukraine and Moldova, these “transnational” children are deprived of natural experience of family socialization, lack pedagogical guidance and control, emotional and spiritual support and often get into the category of “problem children” with various criminal tendencies.
I also found interesting the fact that in the first part of the video, a child of an immigrant is presented as a victim, but in the second part (the example of a sewer at a textile factory) a child is depicted as a “stop factor” for a woman who is willing to go abroad for work but has nobody to take care of her child.
With the quarter of the Moldovan population living abroad and understanding of immigration as “mixed blessing” for them, remittances play an important role both for the economy of Moldova and for the development of living standards in any individual case. So in case of Moldova is emigration more a negative or a positive phenomenon?.. The answer depends on the approach: whether we consider this fact from Moldovan or Greek point of view. The estimated volume of work migrants` remittances to Moldova, going up to one billion USD per year leads us to conclude that migration is economically profitable both for the Moldovan state and for the migrants` families. Nevertheless, the consequences for the economies of the receiving countries are not mentioned (this issue will be presented in upcoming posts).
I consider this video to be an excellent example of the reasons for massive immigration of Moldovan citizens overseas. It is short, yet informative and sets a great volume of vitally important questions e.g. the reasons for immigration itself and its promotion (billboards advertising immigration to Canada), broken families and children who suddenly became “orphans” despite de jure having parents (the majority of schoolchildren whose parents work abroad), faith in God and inability to live decent “God-promised” life (the priest`s words: "You have to suppress you desires and be satisfied with basic necessities. Young people have faith, but still give up after a time: they just can`t cope with this kind of life".), access to food and inability of purchasing it, exploitation of the poor by foreign companies and globalization, education + culture and poverty, racism and stereotypes, which immigrants and work migrants come across when moving to other countries.
As a person who has travelled to Moldova on several times, I can safely say that this video reveals the Moldovan reality: the only place that is different from what you saw is the capital of Moldova – Chisinau with its 5 star hotels, casinos, supermarkets and restaurants. The rest of the country is comprised of villages which share the same unpromising landscape, socio-economic problems and numerous houses, abandoned by Moldovan work migrants and illegal immigrants. Basically this video speaks for itself and by revealing the push factors for mass emigration leads us to specific conclusions which make us understand that decent life conditions in Moldova are if not non existent, then definitely far from EU and any humane standards. In a way my point is proven by the testimonials of ex, to-be Moldovan work migrants and non migrants, who in terms of a survey, conducted by the International organization of Migration of Moldova, answered the following questions:
In my posts I am going to present and analyse general information about work migrants from Ukraine and Moldova in Greece what will help you understand the main push and pull factors, the age/education/skills/etc. image of work migrants of the two countries, the problems that they come across in Greece and the origins of these problems, as well as costs and benefits of work migration for the migrants` families, for their countries of origin and destination. Due to the fact that Greece is a hard and quite "closed" country for foreign investment, there are very few Ukrainian and Moldovan businessmen who operate in Greece, that is why I am going to focus on work migrants only.
