Migrants seeking work will head to Ukraine after war — demographer

Ella Libanova, Director of the Ptukha Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, stated this in an interview with Espreso.

“Depopulation in Ukraine is inevitable in any scenario. Even if we bring back all the refugees,” she said.

The academic was asked whether the conservative views of certain segments of Ukrainian society might hinder the arrival of migrants.

“Everything will depend on how balanced state policy is. How we accept migrants, how we set quotas, and whether anyone will even want to come to us. We are free from the problem that exists in wealthy European countries,” Libanova added.

In her opinion, people will not come to Ukraine for assistance—we are too poor.

“Our assistance will never be like it is in Germany or the Netherlands. Those who come to us will be people who want to earn money—those who need work that is not available in their place of residence. Migrants, in general, are not a bad thing. They are the main channel for cultural, technological, and scientific exchange. We should not have a negative attitude toward all migrants,” the demographer noted.

Libanova believes that migrants should be aware of Ukrainian values, the Ukrainian way of life, and Ukrainian traditions, and should not be in conflict with them.

“I’m not saying they have to fully adhere to them—to some extent, yes, but not completely. That’s impossible, and perhaps it’s even good that it’s impossible. If we want, for example, to understand the ancient wisdom of the Persians, we shouldn’t measure everyone by the ideology of the ayatollahs. We shouldn’t think that we can become one people—no. And no one needs that—we are not Americans, not Australians, not Canadians. We belong to the Old World, and it’s not by chance that it’s called the Old and New World. There, the national psychology is different, the nation was formed differently,” the academic concluded.