"Migration between Slovakia and Ukraine: current status, risks and expectations"

An international scientific conference under the title"Migration between Slovakia and Ukraine: current status, risks and expectations" was held in Uzhhorod on March 2-3, 2017. The scientists, investigating Ukrainian-Slovak border issues within the project "Sharing know-how for better management of the Schengen Border between Slovakia/Ukraine and Norway/Russia", presented the results of their research.

The opening of the conference was attended by Consul General of Slovakia in Uzhhorod Janka Burianova, Vice-Rector for Academic Policy and Research of Uzhhorod National University Myroslava Lendel, Deputy Mayor of Uzhhorod Oleksandr Bilak,  senior researcher of the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association Vladimir Bench, the head of the Department of Civil Education of the Institute of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Prešov Vladislav Dubinsky and the director of the Center for Strategic Partnership (Uzhhorod) Andriy Kryzhevskyi.

 As informed by the project coordinator, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of UzhNU Yuriy Ostapets, the conference covered the issues of social and economic development of the border regions, local border traffic, migration processes, features of border crossing by so-called "peresichnyky" (owners of the cars with foreign registration), opinions of IDPs about migration and others.

The conference summed up the results of Ukrainian and Slovak scientists’ work representing the University of Prešov, Comenius University in Bratislava (Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association) and Uzhhorod National University in cooperation with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (investigation of the basic  border management problems).

 - It is worth mentioning that a lot of interesting field research has been done, - said the Vice-Rector of UzhNU Myroslava Lendel. - Ukrainian and Slovak scholars interviewed the citizens crossing the border and conducted a public opinion survey of the so-called "peresichnyky" and I think it was done for the first time in Ukraine. The work of the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in Uzhhorod was also analyzed by them. Finally, surveys and focus groups helped the scholars to study the opinions of IDPs living in the Transcarpathian region about migration. Preliminary results of research were presented at the conference and they destroy a lot of myths.

- For example, it was found out that internally displaced persons living in the west of Ukraine are less motivated to emigrate than residents of the Transcarpathian region. Why? Such phenomena as seasonal migration or labour migration are not peculiar for the culture of eastern Ukrainians. During the work in focus groups, both women and men said that they would not leave Ukraine, except in extreme cases.

 The scientists also analyzed the motivation of the so-called "peresichnyky", investigated how important political and manipulation components were and tried to find real motives, the owners of cars with foreign registration were driven by.

According to Slovak scientists, the issue of further improvement of the infrastructure of border crossings is one of the most impostant, but most of all they are interested in the topic of migration.

Senior researcher of the Research Center of Slovak Foreign Policy Association Vladimir Bench stressed that it was important to idendify and solve personnel issues at border guard and customs services and in Slovak police.

 Mr. Bench hopes that this is not the last project realized by the Slovak scientists together with their colleagues from UzhNU. The Vice-Rector of UzhNU for Academic Policy and Research Myroslava Lendel is also hoping for further cooperation with the foreign partners.

• International Activities