Ukrainian labour migration and remittances in the European Union.
Strielkowski, Wadim ; Sperkova, Lenka
1. Introduction
International migration has become one of the most discussed and
analysed topics of the 20th century. Military turmoil, political
orientation and general economic climate have all impacted its nature
and brought about new waves and streams of migration while increasing
the public interest in this topic. Mass inflows and outflows of migrants
have shaped labour markets and performance of policies. Therefore,
researchers started studying potential determinants of migration and
impacts of the migration on the source and destination countries that
would also contribute to developing regulatory measures and
international legal framework of this phenomenon.
Since the 1950s, the situation in the Europe has been significantly
influenced by the introduction of "Four freedoms" and the
development of the European Integration process that has brought freedom
of movement of people and workers and series of employment opportunities
not only to the European Union (EU) States but also to non-EU member
countries. Within Europe, the East-West stream of migration belongs to
the second largest stream of the world after Latin America (sometimes
Mexico)-US stream. A number of European countries play an important role
in this concept as transition and destination countries for both
intra-EU and international migration flows. Ukraine has a unique
position in this system. It is the country simultaneously sending and
receiving migrants but also the transition country on the migration way
to the EU. Also, proximity to the EU borders has made Ukraine an
attractive country for the study of socio-economic impacts of migration.
An interest in migration aspects has been noted among researches
who strived to determine the majority of economic factors and
implications for all participants. The key factor of empirical study has
become data, their analysis and phenomenon observed. Remittances are one
of the consequences accompanying migration that can be easily
interpreted as quantitative measure. Remittance as money transfers are
one of the most important channels of the wealth distribution
influencing countries on both sides. The socio-economic effects and
determinants can be analysed from macro and microeconomic perspective.
The result of such analysis often depends on the reliability of data
source and explanatory power. The advantage of macroeconomic data
originating from the international institutions such as IMF, Eurostat or
the World Bank is their availability. On the other side, those highly
aggregated datasets derive remittance from balance of payments which
captures only a formal form of remittances. The majority of remittances
sent to the source country are transferred via formal and informal
channels. In view of the high number of illegal or undocumented
migrants, official statistics usually underestimate volume of both
migration and remittances (the fact that has been acknowledged also by
IMF). An alternative approach that allows capturing all channels of
transfer is microeconomic research conducted on individual basis.
Although listing all related publications would take up several pages of
this paper, some relevant ones, e.g. Massey et al. (1997), Massey et al.
(2002), Massey (2004), Donato et al. (2005), or Durand and Massey (2010)
can be used as examples of this type of research on the study of
migration behaviour in Mexico and Latin America (Mexican Migration
Project (MMP) and Latin American Migration Project (LAMP)). Douglas
Massey and his colleagues provided methodology with aspirations to
capture global migration flows. 2
2. Literature review
In recent decades the scope of interest in migration topic has
changed in many ways in methodology, topic and results. Unlike the
researchers in the 1970s and their specific approach, has been an
expansion of the area of interest and a shift from rural-urban migration
to global migration flow models with the stress on mutual connection to
development (Clemens et al. 2014). The reason reflects international
development which has brought the phenomenon of globalization along with
political and demographical changes together with shaping the state of
migration.
Current demographic projections confirm the continual issue of
aging. By 2020, the increase 17% (OECD 2014) is estimated in the retired
class compared to productive population. The existence of population gap
highlights the sustainability of current European public pension and
social systems with increasing fiscal burden imposed on the younger
generation. International migration is to be seen as a possibility to
alleviate an increasing tax burden for future generation. Kirdar and
Murat (2008) investigated the impact of immigration on German social
system and discovered that immigrants are net contributors to the system
regardless of country of origin or structure. Hung-Ju Chen, I-Hsiang
Fang (2013) went further with a construction of dynamic model
investigating a long-term impact on economic development. Results showed
evidences of positive effects of migration on reduction of tax burden in
social security area. Calibration on US data also confirmed a long-run
positive impact on GDP per worker compared to closed economy.
Nevertheless, there have been continuous concerns about a possible
dependency of immigrants on the social system (Razin and Sadka 2000) and
a negative effect on domestic labour market.
Multilateral migration's impact on economy has not been
restricted to consequences in social systems. Economic theory strives to
peruse the majority of possible aspects within which welfare effects,
economic growth and expected impacts on labour market stand out.
However, results of accomplished theoretical and empirical studies
diverge both in magnitude and a direction of resulting impact. The
number of dimensions of international migration is examined in Kerr
(2011) where the authors provide a deep investigation of major
immigration aspects including a distinct effect on host and origin
countries, self-selection, assimilation of migrants and labour markets.
The empirical analysis of many aspects have been studied in a number of
empirical researches that differ in methodology and sample structure.
Due to heterogeneity it is extremely difficult to identify
"true" direction within each area. To the most complex
achievements belongs the meta-analysis by Longhi et al. (2008) who
compared 45 studies focusing on wages, unemployment and labour force
participation. Research synthesis comprising two preceding analysis
showed negligible effect on the labour market accompanied with
estimations including insignificant coefficients. Acknowledging the
broadness of conclusion and possible macro-level implications, the
authors remark that there are limits in the case of specific market
conditions, especially in the availability of detailed longitudinal
data. Nevertheless, robust findings showed a strongly negative effect of
recent migrants on wages of their predecessors which confirmed high
substitution elasticity between them. Another stream of research strives
to attain a deeper insight into factors affecting the destination
country's labour market. Firstly, there is the question of
complementarity of foreign-born workers towards domestic labour supply.
Another dimension of the problem includes a division of effect between
highly skilled and low-skilled workers, white- and blue-collar workers.
Orrenius and Zavodny (2006) investigated an impact of immigration on the
level of wages among highly skilled and low-skilled workers in the U.S.
Their results showed a negative impact of foreign born workers'
inflow on the level of wages within the same category. Nevertheless,
there was no statistically significant impact on the wage of skilled
labour. Also, the impact on the wage increases with the length of the
stay (considering no or very little impact of newcomers) which implies
fast assimilation of immigrants and closer substitution to domestic
labour force. Similar approach was adopted by Borjas (2003) with an
assumption of perfect substitutes of workers within the same experience
or education category. The results confirmed adverse effect on the wage.
Evidences from the U.S. labour market tend to be confronted with those
from the EU market. Ortega and Verdugo (2014) endeavoured to explain the
disparity by comparison to the French labour market. Positive
correlation found in the French case was explained by labour market
specifications (and structural changes within the studied period) along
with different substitutability among immigrants and domestic labour
force. However, even within the EU we found diverse effects. The study
of immigration into West Germany (D'Amuri et al. 2010) showed a
small adverse effect on wages. The validity of the results tended to be
conforming to the time period. The transition period in Central and
Eastern Europe has proven to play an important role in this development.
Zimmermann and Winter-Ebmer (1998) confirmed its importance in a study
which showed no evidence of adverse effect in Germany compared to
Austria experiencing adverse effect both in wages and unemployment. UK
is to be seen as another common choice as a destination country.
According to Baas and Bruckner (2012), this holds true even for
emigrants from Austria and Germany. EU enlargement in 2004 yielded a
rather positive impact on the UK labour market rather than on Germany
which is in line with conclusions of Lemos and Portes (2008) who found
no evidence of adverse effect in the UK labour market. Despite possible
heterogeneity of markers, comparative studies strive to discover
similarities which might set a basis for further broader researches.
Massey et al. (2011) challenged this task by presenting one of the first
quantitative studies between Moroccans in Spain and Mexicans in the USA.
Their analysis focused on the probability of getting skilled employment,
the level of wage and occupational attainment based on an assessment of
the level of education, age, language skills, etc. Different countries
shared resemblance in the impact of the length of stay in the host
country but Mexicans indicated a higher level of employment. Other
findings were not distinctive and disparities intervened.
The multilateral nature of possible international migration impacts
made this field of study to consider not only personal characteristics
of migrants but also the macro-level implication. Links between them
compose sets of non-trivial tasks including a full understanding of
labour market implications. Therefore, the listed examples of literature
should serve as an overview of major fields of interest which set basis
for more complex studies which might interconnect heterogeneous results
into the firm unit.
3. Characteristics and development of the Ukrainian migration
In order to objectively describe migration flows of Ukraine, it is
crucial to introduce facts of economic development that contributed to
the current state of the economy and that would help to enlighten
background for migration behaviour ("push factor").
From the economic point of view, Ukraine has undergone a long
journey of economic transformation since the 1990s, which is not
generally acknowledged as a finished process. The current economic state
of the country is facing economic problems, unstable political
environment and high energetic dependency on Russia. The recent military
conflict has interrupted attempts to solve long-term problems and again
hampered Ukraine's endeavours to become a candidate state for the
EU membership.
Ukraine belonged to the most economically significant countries of
the former USSR. Exports to the Eastern countries consisted not only of
the agricultural products, but also of diverse heavy industry.
Agricultural products effectively covered almost 25% of the USSR demand.
After the fall of the USSR, the Newly Independent States (NIS) emerged
from the former member states of the Soviet bloc. In 1990, the
transformation of economies from central planning to the
"market-oriented" model began. Each of the new economies faced
a dilemma with two possibilities of transformation approach. The first
attitude constituted the "shock therapy" where reforms were
implemented at once, followed by an adjustment period. The second
approach was formed by a gradual adoption and implementation of reforms
(gradualism) which required (in contrast to the first approach) a longer
period of time (Westernhagen, 2002). In 1992, the Ukrainian government
prepared a framework for privatization scheme and liberalization of
prices. Nevertheless, the implementation of reforms was hampered by
resistance and disputes within the party which resulted in the steep
economic decline and drop of GDP growth for the next 3 years (Figure 1).
Due to the economic downturn and political situation, two years after
joining the IMF Ukraine began to cooperate with IMF on the solution in
the form of assistance. Four major programs consisting of the set of
reforms were accompanied by financial support. Cooperation was realized
between years 1994 and 2002 and resulted in the economy recovery and
uninterrupted GDP growth.
In 2004, dissatisfaction with subsequent political and economic
development resulted in the Orange Revolution that again changed intra-
and international political orientation of Ukraine. Nevertheless, thanks
to strong consumption power, the financial and economic crisis was
delayed to 2009 but it was not sufficiently strong to prevent it.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The general economic situation got worse also after Russian gas
supplies were reduced due to unpaid debt in the same year. International
reaction of the EU and other institutions generated pressure for the
government to implement necessary reforms. Since 2012 Ukraine has
experienced another economic downturn caused by insufficient endeavour
to implement IMF reforms.
Ukraine is an economy with an unfinished process of transformation
that is facing economic and political problems. Macroeconomic indicators
show very high level of unemployment that slowed down after economic
crisis, but still remains high. Unfavourable economic environment did
not generate enough opportunities for the skilled and highly educated
labour force and business environment continues to suffer from the high
corruption level and political instability. Together with regional
specific problems within Ukraine, the basis for the push factor of brain
drain and migration outflow was created. Subsequent development of
Ukraine until 2015 also has not provided sufficient background for the
situation improvement.
Not only the economic but also migration aspects have undergone
development during the last 20 years that have changed their shape
depending on the socioeconomic, political and demographic conditions of
Ukraine. After the fall of the Soviet bloc Ukraine has become the key
transition country for migration flows between East and West Europe. If
we include Russia into the stream, this region creates the second
largest migration corridor in the world.
Ukraine has a very specific position as a migration country with
significant both inward and outward migration. Description of both
streams would provide exhaustive analysis which would require additional
data collection.
4. Methodology of the survey questionnaire
Our analysis which follows is based on the unique dataset collected
in Transcarpathia district (Zakarpattya). Transcarpathia region is
situated in the West corner of Ukraine and shares borders with Poland,
Hungary and Romania--3 member states of the EU. Historical development
comprising Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Slovak, Soviet and Ukrainian
governments together with rich national diversification of population
resulted in its proximity facilitating national movement.
The survey was carried out in April 2012 which allowed some time
distance from the immediate (eventually most severe) impacts of
financial crisis in 2008 and would provide perspective in the change of
migration behaviour in comparison to researches carried out prior to
this period. Acknowledging drawbacks of the time period which does not
include panel dataset until 2014 that might present interesting results
implied by 2014 Ukrainian crisis and the following conflict, a space for
further research extension is thus created.
The necessity to attain reliable and detailed observations required
the adoption of micro-level approach involving detailed information
about households. Therefore, the informal and reliable nature of a
semi-structured interview has to be adopted. For this purpose, data
collection was conducted by local inhabitants who are able to adjust to
the form of interview to minimize rejection rate.
The design of survey comprises ethnosurvey attitude used in MMP,
LAMP, PMP and UMP projects. Size and conceptual adjustment had to be
made because of survey and country differences. As opposed to LAMP and
MMP projects, encompassing thousands of households originating from
various regions, this survey focuses on a single region with a
statistically and historically high probability of emigration. The
geographical position of Latin American countries has made them prone to
migration into economically stronger regions, USA and North America.
Although we might find the most common destination country for Ukrainian
migrants, higher objectivity and reliability of study is attained when
considering the whole EU region as one area of interest. Ukraine belongs
to the broadly discussed East-West stream of migration which a logical
extension including the area of EU as a destination "country".
The questionnaires were divided into subsections dedicated to a
specific area of interest of the migrant or his/her family. The first
part contains information about the household composition and family
members (age, sex, number and age of children, marital status and years
of education). The second part describes marital history of the
household head. The history of migration experience within and outside
Ukraine including wage provides sections three and four. Further, these
sections seek information about the legal status of each household
member. Labour history and the history of business ownership is followed
by information about relatives and friends with migratory experience.
Household equipment and vehicle and capital ownership and usage of
financial service at home and abroad belong to the next section. Last
but not least, there is a part dedicated to financial affairs during the
last trip abroad which contains remitted amount, spending and saving
structure etc. In view of heterogeneity and randomness of samples it was
not possible to obtain all stated information in full length and
therefore we had to account for rejection rate as well as a right not to
give all information asked by the questioner. For those purposes we have
focused on the key factors regarding determinants of remittances and
spending structure.
5. Data description and summary statistics
The scope of the questionnaire design enabled us, for the purposes
of this analysis, to make an insight into the detailed demographic and
professional attributes of migrants which might affect their behaviour
in the context of migration and willingness to send remittances. In
order to find out the representativeness of selected sample, the major
factor will be confronted with formal macroeconomic data survey
(representing the formal stream of data). Therefore, the exhaustive
content of the questionnaire is divided into relevant subsections
enabling total summary of the data sample.
5.1. Lifecycle characteristics and human capital factors
Our survey provided a comprehensive description of demographic and
personal characteristics. This section represents the main summary of
descriptive statistics stemming from the collected data survey (for
specifics see Appendix A).
Table 1 displays the summary statistics stemming from the initial
part of the survey. The predominant majority of respondents (81%) are
men. Age structure varies between 24 and 82 years. Nevertheless,
considering family members and adding people living within the same
household, the range expands to 2-87 years. Mean age within relevant
sample is 45.43 years, median age 44 years and the highest density is
between 37 and 56 years.
Contrary to LAMP and MMP projects, there is a significant
difference in definition concerning years of school attendance both in
theory and actual statistics in the case of EU. In order to attain
universality of collected data sample we have considered ISCED
classification for the duration of each stage of education attainment
which is acknowledged on international level. Within data sample, all
respondents reached at least secondary education and 60% attained this
level. The second largest group comprises respondents with university
degree (tertiary education) reaching 40%.
Despite this anticipated shift in comparison with EU levels of
29.9% and 77.8% corresponding to the economic and social disparity there
are 27% of migrants representing the level above master's degree
(PhD or higher). With regard to knowledge of a foreign language, almost
75% of responders are able to understand English.
Family status analysis shows that 94.5% of migrants are not
"single" and 75.5% are married. The minority of migrants (8%)
are divorced. An average household consists of 3.42 members and almost
50% (49.5%) has more than 4 members.
Gender division enables to discover differences in marital status.
As opposed to married status which is similar for both genders and
overall statistic, there is a higher proportion of single women (6.7%).
We can also find a significantly higher proportion of divorced men
(10.3%) than women (5.6%). With respect to education, men tend to spend
almost one year more in school than women. Despite this fact, 64.7% of
women finish secondary school compared to 54.6% of men. On the tertiary
level statistics, the reverse situation appears with 35.3% women going
to school. The general ability to speak English differs moderately with
a higher proportion of women (76.5%).
The scope of research focuses on employment status and category
both before and during migration. Figure 2 shows the distribution
between economic sectors within the sample where we also include the
category "other" including students, unemployed and retired
people. The inclusion of migrants' employment in destination
countries shows that the division changes towards the domination of
secondary sector followed by tertiary sector and seasonal work. An
interpretation of distribution might indicate that migrants tend to
choose less qualified positions than those in their former occupations.
This fact is also supported by the proportion of 30% of migrants who had
to change the type of job during the migration period. Unexpected
developments are seasonal activities which were expected to be a more
common form of employment in destination country (in comparison with
similar studies).
Division into specified economic activities is presented in Figure
3 and it shows that the construction sector belongs to the most common
type of employment. Seasonal activities take the second place.
Destination country economic activities show an increase in
construction, manufacturing sector and seasonal activities.
Accommodation and gastronomy also indicated a moderate increase.
Nevertheless, among the most common professions within the sample is
less qualified work (especially housekeeping services and waiters).
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
5.2. Remittances
The Western regions in Ukraine belong to the areas with the highest
proportion of both national and cross-border migrants in the state.
Regional approach might bring, in this case, disparity between
macroeconomic (aggregate) and microeconomic approaches. Therefore, we
might expect a shift in ranking among the most common destination
countries corresponding to the geographical specification of the region.
Moreover, comparison of differences and their subsequent argumentation
might serve as a supporting indicator of representativeness of our data
sample.
Observing the range of countries in Table 4, we see that it
corresponds with macroeconomic statistics, where Russia, Poland, Italy
and Germany dominate. However, the Table also shows visible shift in
ranking corresponding with the proximity to the EU borders (and
favouring EU member states). The Czech Republic belongs to the most
common option within the sample. The fact corresponds with A series of
analysis focusing on migrants' performance and interaction between
those two countries (Strielkowski, 2012). The comparison of presented
statistics with other analysis and similarities observed both on the
micro and macro levels supports diversity and representative power of
data--a sufficient variety of migrants considering destination country
choice.
Regardless of the choice of destination country, almost 66% of
respondents tend to migrate (Table 4). Also only 41.98% of migrants
choose to send regular transfers back to source country (on the monthly
basis). Based on our literature review, altruism and "consumption
smoothing hypothesis" (an economic concept used to express the
desire of people to have a stable path of consumption) belong to the
most common motives of short- term migration. Therefore, it is
surprising that our sample does not tend to show this pattern. The cause
of this deviation might be explained in different form of remittance
behaviour which does not assign regular pattern. Since 21.8% of migrants
return with money (savings) back to the source country, the mean
percentage amount covering all forms of remittances increases to 51.88%.
Considering gender differentiation, 67.3% of men migrate as contrasted
with 62.9% of women. The head of the family is usually responsible for
providing the major income for the family which might influence his
decision to migrate with altruistic, insurance or other motive to remit.
The male member of the family is usually stated as the head of the
family which corresponds with survey involving only 17.5% of families
with a woman as the head. Previous studies (Strielkowski et al. (2012)
observed higher amounts remitted by male. In the case of families with
the male as the head, an average monthly remitted amount reaches 460.67
USD compared to 406.25 for female as the head, which consistently
confirms previous conclusions.
If we enrich statistics by including occupational and financial
spheres (Table 5) one can see that the mean of hourly wage reaches 6.63
USD. Unlike women who get a significantly lower amount (6.07 USD), men
earn exactly the mean hourly wage. In average, migrants work almost 44
hours per week which exceeds the labour norm 40 hours only slightly.
Nevertheless, the number of hours reaches from 1 to almost 90 hours with
25% of population exceeding 60 hours.
Money transfers also show an interesting pattern. An average amount
sent per month is almost 450 USD, but differs with respect to gender.
The mean amount per month sent by men is more than 50 USD higher that by
women. Similar pattern is observed in transfers brought back. However,
savings are higher for women (almost 500 UDS) than for men (477 USD).
Considering the answering structure of the survey, two major types
of money flows which might be categorized as remittances are recognized.
With respect to the previous paragraph some migrants send either
regularly of irregularly smaller amounts of money on the monthly basis
to the source country. However, we observe that migrants might bring a
single amount at return journey. This money amount is significantly
higher than regular transfers. Incorporation into the groups is not
exclusive and we observe migrants pertaining to both categories. In view
of this duplicity, literature stream is not uniform or does not
differentiate among them. Massey at al. (2013) suggests re-consideration
of remittances and money remitted or saved during the migration trip.
Intended or unintended division or merger between groups might lead to a
different estimation of statistical results and later misleading policy
recommendation.
Another dimension of remittances represents consideration of
destination country choice. Research literature acknowledges a number of
studies showing the amount of remittances sent and revived between EU
and third countries (Kupets, 2012).
However, very little attention has been paid to the actual
proportion of income remitted to the source country. In Figure 4 we show
an overview of the most common destination countries among respondents
and respective percentage of income sent back to Ukraine as remittances.
The indicator was constructed by determination of income of migrants (in
212 prices in USD) and subsequent multiplication of hourly wage and
average number of hours spent in work. For those purposes only regularly
sent money transfers were considered.
The major question discussed is whether there are significantly
different patterns between the East and West stream of migration. In
order to objectively compare each country, the cost of living index is
considered where Ukraine represent level 100 and all destination
countries indexes are derived from this level. The anticipated outcome
would suggest that countries with a high cost of living index would
generate a smaller percentage of remittances than countries with a lower
cost.
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
The highest share (66%) was sent from Austria, followed by Russia,
Czech Republic and Slovakia (Figure 5). A negligible proportion was sent
from Southern EU countries such as Spain and Italy and Portugal. The
division between East and West stream of migration does not appear to
show any difference. After the inclusion of the cost of living index
there is no sign of inverse relationship between two variables. For
example, Austria with the highest level of index generates also the
highest proportion of remittances (66%). Further in Italy with a similar
level of cost index, migrants sent very low share of income (9%). In the
case of other countries, no visible pattern is observed.
[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]
5.3. Financial and material background and health aspects
Migrants are using a wide range of both formal and informal
channels to transfer remitted money into the source country. The choice
among them is not negligible with respect to impact on international and
national statistics which mostly comprise from the more formal form of
transfers. The division of each category contains bank transfers,
transfer companies, postal services, friends and relatives or by the
migrant himself. Despite the high development of financial system in
destination countries, only 2.5% of respondents own a bank account in
foreign currency. In average, 67% of migrants receive their wages in
cash. Decomposition into the destination countries is showed in Figure
5.
There is no difference observed between the East and West stream of
migration and both assign a high proportion of cash form. However,
Germany belongs to the single country with a percentage below 50%. This
might be explained by a stricter form of regulation regarding wage
payments and a lower proportion of informal forms of employment. The
reasons for the high percentage of wages paid in cash form might include
a high proportion of undocumented migration.
Also, the majority of respondents consist of seasonal and secondary
sector workers which do not choose to use this channel. This fact
supports preference of informal channels used for remittance transfer.
6. Conclusions and policy implications
The aim of this paper was to analyse Ukrainian remittance behaviour
in the context of the EU as a destination region. Literature stream
acknowledges a number of studies focusing on the topic of migration and
remittances. The scope of their interest includes the determination of
impacts on the source and destination country and identification of
migrants' characteristics. Despite a wide range of geographical
coverage of the studies we find contradictory effects that differ on
both macro and microeconomic level. Inconsistent results provide space
for further research that would detect a statistical significant
direction and magnitude of effects.
A non-negligible role in the development of the European migration
has been played by the integration process that during the last 60 years
implemented a series of freedoms and restrictions that shaped the form
of migration into the current state. The main scope of the EU migration
policy was focused both on intra-EU migration and enhancement of freedom
of movement and on non-EU countries where visa agreements and programs
participation dominates. Central and Eastern European regions include
countries with an intensive frequency of migration. Ukraine has a
special a position among those countries as a state sending and
receiving a high number of migrants who have a significant impact on the
EU labour market--the relationship that has been determined both
economically and historically.
Our findings confirm that the probability to remit is determined by
demographic factors. However, there is a difference between remittances
regularly sent and savings with which migrants return. There is also a
difference in the types of migrants. The probability of regular
remittances increases in the case of older and less educated migrants
with a larger family that might have an undocumented status. A negative
sign in "ownership" variables suggests that remittances are
not motivated by business financing. Based on the sign of coefficients
and their magnitude, results speak in favour of altruistic motives of
regular remittances.
Further, savings brought back to Ukraine at return journey show a
different type of effect. The probability of this type of behaviour
increases with young migrants with small or no family and with a
finished secondary education. However, there is also a small impact of
income tax withhold suggesting that there exists an undocumented form of
employment. Variable signs and magnitude also showed that businesses in
the source country are more likely to be financed from this form of
transfer (with statistically significant results).
Concerning the amount of remittances sent, the results confirmed
above described an effect agreeing with remittance types. The results
are mostly consistent with previous findings of Massey at al. (2013),
but there is also an interesting effect of income suggesting that a
higher income increases the amount of money brought back but not
regularly sent remittances. Although the result of the model did not
show a statistically significant effect.
A policy implication should highlight the remittances typology.
Results confirm that despite the highly developed financial system,
informal channels are preferred for money transfer. The reason might be
an illegal or undocumented form of employment as a seasonal worker.
Some studies suggest that migrants tend to channel remittances into
short-term consumption for food and into stabilizing their long-term
consumption. Nevertheless, contradicting findings question the validity
of the statement. The result of the second hypothesis testing shows that
both forms of remittances are mainly invested either as a business
investment or an investment into education (productive spending). The
statistical significance of these variables supported by control factors
therefore confirms the validity of stated hypothesis, i.e. remittances
channelled to the source country are invested into productive forms of
consumption.
Generally, we may say that the outcome of the models supports
microeconomic and individual level point of view. Diversity among
different subtypes of the variable confirms that the aggregated
macroeconomic dataset might omit important details that after extraction
generate contradicting effects. For example: reverse economic effects of
remittances on the source country may simply be a combination of regular
and occasional form with a different weight. Therefore, migration policy
development should not neglect microeconomic effects that have a
potential to solve aggregate level problems.
The realization of the survey in the Zakarpattya district in
Ukraine has tested dimensions of the questionnaire under European
conditions. Despite the high explanatory power of the questions, we
believe that the questionnaire includes a high number of open questions
that might demotivate respondents to answer. A shift of the type of
answers to the numeric values and a choice of the possibilities would
simplify data processing and increase the unified form of the data
sample without deteriorating "ethnosurvey" principles.
Addresses:
Wadim Strielkowski
Judge Business School
University of Cambridge
13 Trumpington Street CB2 1AG Cambridge United Kingdom
E-mail: w.strielkowski@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Lenka Sperkova
Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Social Sciences
Smetanovo nabr. 6, 110 01 Praha 1 Czech Republic
E-mail: lenka.sperkova@post.cz
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APPENDIX A
Questionnaire design (Ukrainian Migration Project): summary of the
main sections
A. Information on members of the household and other children of
the household head not living in the household
B. Marital history of the household head
C. Number of children from the spouse
D. Detailed information about each person with migration experience
within Ukraine and to EU
E. Information on each person in Table A who has applied for legal
residence or citizenship in the EU
F. History of businesses, companies, or other investment-related
activities of the household head or the spouse.
G. Labour history of household head since he/she began to work
H. EU migratory experience of household head's family of
origin
I. Information on the household head's relatives and friends
with migratory experience to the EU
J. Information on current residence and history of other properties
owned by household head and spouse
K. Household amenities
L. Vehicles currently owned
M. Remittances
N. Information about undocumented crossings
O. Information about household head's experience in the EU
P. Information about financial affairs of the head and the spouse
during the last trip to the EU
Q. Information about the use of public services in the EU
R. History of household head's current and former agricultural
properties
S. Information on cultivation tasks in current land parcels
T. Health of household head & spouse and other migrants
Wadim Strielkowski [1] and Lenka Sperkova [2]
[1] University of Cambridge and [2] Charles University in Prague
Table 1. Summary statistics of demographic and human capital
charasteristics
Value Unit of measure
Personal characteristics
Males 82 %
Females 18 %
Age 45.43 mean (years)
Single 5.5 %
Married 75.5 %
Divorced 8 %
Household (HH) size 3.42 mean (members per HH)
Human capital
English language 74.5 %
Education 14.3 mean (years)
Secondary education 60 %
Tertiary education 40 %
Source: Own results.
Table 2. Gender statistics
Variable Female Male Unit
Single 6.7 4.1 %
Married 75.5 75.3 %
Divorced 5.6 10.3 %
English language 76.5 72.2 %
Education 13.0 14.2 %
Secondary education 64.7 54.6 %
Tertiary education 35.3 48.7 %
Source: Own results.
Table 3. Division of economic activities of migrants
Primary
sector
1-Agriculture, forestry and fishing
Secondary
sector 2-Mining and quarrying
3-Manufacturing
4-Electricity, gas and air-conditioning supply
5-Water supply
6-Construction
Tertiary
sector 7-Wholesale and retail trade
8-Transportation and storage
9-Accommodation and food service activities
10-Information and communication
11-Financial and insurance activities
12-Real estate activities
13-Professional, scientific and technical activities
14-Administrative and support service activities
15-Public administration and defence
16-Education
17-Human health and social work activities
18-Arts and entertainment
19-Activities of household as employers
20-Other services
Source: Own results.
Table 4. Destination countries for Ukrainian migrants (national
and regional comparison)
National statistics Regional statistics
Russia 50% Czech Republic 56%
Poland 12% Russia 15%
Italy 8% Slovakia 5%
Germany 6% Poland 5%
Czech Republic 5% Italy 5%
Greece 3% Portugal 3%
Spain 3% Hungary 3%
USA 2% Germany 3%
UK 1% Spain 2%
Portugal 1% USA 1%
Israel 0% Slovenia 1%
UEA 0% UK 1%
Source: Own results.
Table 5. Summary statistics for Ukrainian migrants: trip
characteristics
Variable Total Female Male Unit
Migrate 66.6 62.9 67.3 % Proportion
Remit 41.98 54.5 39.5 % Proportion
Hourly wage 6.63 6.07 6.64 USD mean
Hours worked per 43.9 41.21 43.84 hours mean
week
Remittances 448.74 406.25 460.67 USD mean
Savings (per 482.21 498.4 477.45 USD mean
month)
Amount brought 8786.82 7976.67 9029.87 USD mean
back
Source: Own results.
