Brain Gain or Brain Waste? The Performance of Return Labor Migrants in the Ukrainian Labor Market

Costs and Benefits of Labour Mobility between the EU and the Eastern Partnership Partner Countries - Country Report: Ukraine

“…A higher chance of employment, however, does not imply that university graduates get a job that corresponds to their qualifications 28 . The ULMS-2007 survey shows that more than onethird of Ukrainians perform a job that either requires a different level of education or a different field of education 29 .…”

“…On the other hand, a university diploma is not always a sign of a higher productivity; there are many universities that provide low-quality education, and corruption is widespread in higher 28 If you look through vacancies on any of the job-related web-sites, you will see that a university degree is routinely required even for low-skill positions, such as secretaries or salesmen. 29 30 .…”

“…There is evidence of "brain waste" among Ukrainian migrants (Kupets, 2011(Kupets, , 2010. About 80% of specialists experience occupational downshifting when taking a job abroad, while skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers mostly find similar occupations in a destination country.…”

Economic Aspects of Ukrainian Migration to EU Countries

“…Some researchers also stress that there may be skill shortages even in the case of large flows of return migrants due to widespread skill downgrading while working abroad and the low economic activity of those who intend to go abroad again (Bogdan 2011;Kupets 2011). Besides, there is anecdotal evidence of the moral hazard problem induced by migration and remittances, which is reflected in decreasing economic activity among the members of households with at least one labour migrant, particularly among the young, though this fact is not statistically proven (IDSS 2010).…”

“…For example, the typology of return migrants offered by Kupets (2011) is very similar to the one mentioned above but there is also information on the proportion of each group of return migrants: (i) "retirement return", 4.8%; (ii) "innovation return", 2.5%; (iii) "conservatism return" ("missionaries" in the Kys typology), 37.5%; and (iv) "failure return" (Kys' "disappointed" plus deportees), 55.2%. So, very few returnees were innovative agents of change who invested in their own business and created jobs, probably due to existing entry barriers, the high administrative costs of doing business, inadequate contract enforcement and other barriers to business in Ukraine.…”