Those who are leaving blame a lack of job opportunities, an ongoing war against Russian-backed separatists and a failure of political will.
By Yuliya Talmazan
KIEV, Ukraine — Kateryna Filip was a certified English teacher in her homeland. She now works abroad as a cleaner.
It was a tough decision but one she is convinced will ensure her three children have a brighter future.
The 34-year-old is among the millions of Ukrainians who have left the country as part of a devastating brain drain.
She says the lack of well-paid jobs, rampant corruption and a war with Moscow-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine made her and her husband, Vasyl, decide to seek a better life in the Czech Republic.
“There is nothing waiting for our kids here,” Kateryna Filip says while sitting in a pizza joint in the heart of Kiev. “We love Ukraine, but it doesn’t love us back.”
While there are no official statistics as no census has been conducted since 2001, it is estimated that as many as one in 15 Ukrainian citizens is working abroad at any given time.
Deputy Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko has called the exodus “one of the greatest threats facing Ukraine after military aggression” while a former head of its foreign intelligence service has called the situation“a national tragedy.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin last year said that 100,000 people were leaving the country every month.
Since the country became independent in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, its population has dropped by almost 8 million people to around 44 million. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, the number will shrink to 36 million. And 50 years later, the world body predicts, that number will dip to 28 million. Falling fertility rates also play a role, but migration is a key part of the equation.
“I just don’t have time. I only have one life and I am not ready to wait another 10 years for basic changes to take hold in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko previously said that economic migration is a “normal process.”
But the Filips disagree.
“If you are a teacher with a college degree or own a business and you are ready to leave all that behind and go abroad to clean floors, then no, it’s not normal,” Kateryna Filip said.
Vasyl Filip, 23, met his wife while he was fighting on the front lines in Eastern Ukraine in 2015. Only months earlier, the country’s pro-Russia president had fled after a revolution triggered by his refusal to forge closer ties with Europe.