MODERN PROBLEMS OF UKRAINIAN FEMALE MIGRANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN

Oksana Abreu Bastos

Abstract


This article presents a study of preconditions for women’s migration from Ukraine to EU countries. Important preconditions that I identify are low salaries in Ukraine, inadequate state support for low-income families, a low level of alimony for children and increasing numbers of children who are being born into single parent families since the early 1990s. Thus, this article gives an explanation for the continued migration of women from Ukraine to EU countries. In general, Ukrainian women who decide to go abroad in order to work state that their main concern is the wellbeing and the education of their children in Ukraine. It is therefore common that Ukrainian female labor migrants deny themselves the most necessary things in order to send as much money as possible to their children in Ukraine. Paradoxically, children of female labor migrants do not always value their mothers’ efforts, and sometimes the money sent by their mothers actually has the reverse effect than that intended, as the money discourages rather than motivates these children to study, to work, and to create their careers. As a result, the money sent from abroad, in conjunction with a lack of control from their mothers as well as from the state, leads to adverse consequences for these children and for society in general.


Keywords


Ukraine, the phenomenon of female migration, the social orphaning of children with living parents, Ukrainian women, EU countries

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References


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