Author
Malynovska Olena
a Doctor of Sciences in Public Administration, chief research associate of the Center for Economic and Social Research of the National Institute of Strategic Studies.
The influence of international migration on the ethnic composition of the population of Ukraine
Abstract
Foreign migration has always had a significant impact on the formation of number, sex-age and ethnic structure of the population of Ukraine. Although in the public consciousness migration is associated mainly with the newest period of history. The majority of immigrants living in the state has arrived to Ukraine in the Soviet epoch. As a result of the fact that the country is separated from the outside world by the Iron Curtain, they have come mostly from the former Soviet republics. The inter-republican migration of the Soviet era has influenced on the ethnic composition of the Ukrainian population in two directions. Firstly, because of the departure to the other republics of the USSR, the number of the titular nation representatives has declined, and, secondly, there is a replacement of those who have left by the population of other ethnicity.
During the period of independence, due to greater openness to the world, the directions of movement have changed, their geography has expanded. Immigrants such as refugees, foreign workers and investors, illegal migrants have appeared in Ukraine. Due to immigration ethnic groups which have already lived in Ukraine are replenished as well as new ones appeare. Although the total number of non-typical ethnic groups in the country is quite small and does not affect on the population structure significantly. The rapid growth of their numbers indicates the possibility of further replenishment through immigration.
It is necessary to realize that in the conditions of a natural decrease of population immigration becomes the only means of slowing down the depopulation. Specific measures aimed at emigration from Ukraine reducing, returning those who have left before, as well as encouraging immigration to the state, are necessary. In turn, it puts forward the problem of the immigrants integration into Ukrainian society and the establishment of interethnic interaction between the local population and the arrivals, whose ethnic and cultural characteristics can be quite different and unusual. The development and implementation of a state migration policy, an integral part of which should be the policy of integration, as well as the development of ethno-national policies, taking into account the multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism caused by immigration, are considered as important tasks.
Keywords
international migration, ethnic group, state ethnic policy.
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