On April 22, the forum "Demographic Future of Ukraine: Strategy of Resilience and Recovery" was held by the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine. During the forum, the project of Demographic Development Strategy of Ukraine until 2040 was presented followed by a public discussion on the dynamics of demographic changes, current demographic trends, policies that will contribute to the stability of the country against the background of demographic changes, and the integration of the Demographic Development Strategy into national strategies.
Nataly Zaika, a researcher at the Institute for Behavioral Studies at American University Kyiv, and a member of the working group on the Demographic Development Strategy of Ukraine, took part in the panel discussion of the forum, where she pointed out on that part of the demographic strategy that involves migration growth.
In particular, she noted, "There is practically no doubt that in the coming years, we will have to actively invite people from abroad to come and live in Ukraine. This question has two focuses. First, it is the return/arrival of Ukrainians (by passport and by origin). It was important for me that during the preparation of this strategy, we talked about the return not only of refugees of the last two years, but also of pre-war migrants and, more broadly, of the Ukrainian diaspora (our research in Poland shows that about half of refugees and about a third of pre-war migrants want to return).
The second issue in this context is the attraction of foreign migrants. Here we can highlight three lessons from other countries that are quite successful, namely: 1) a highly targeted migration policy, 2) simple, clear and understandable rules for obtaining long-term visas/work permits for foreigners 3) integration policy from the moment a foreigner enters Ukraine.
And another, no less important issue is the preparation of the local population for the arrival of a large number of foreigners. There should be proper communication in advance about why we are inviting migrants, why they are not a danger to the locals and are not coming to take their jobs."
The Strategy is open for public discussion until June 1: https://www.msp.gov.ua/projects/870/
The video recording of the event is available at the link: https://www.facebook.com/MLSP.gov.ua/videos/437154808800975
The organizers of the event were the Ministry of Social Policy, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the NGO "UA Experts".