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Women’s migration as “serving a family”

2013-10-31 12:30

The event was attended by academics, human rights defenders and public activists: Professor of the Goethe Frankfurt University Helma Lutz, junior scientific staff member of the Institute of Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, project manager of the Commission of UGCC for Migrants, editor of the migration portal “Naviator” Svitlana Odynets, chairman of the Commission of UGCC for Migrants Hryhoriy Seleshchuk, president of the international women’s rights centre “La Strada-Ukraine” Kateryna Levchenko, Candidate of Sociological Sciences Victoriya Volodko, director of the NGO “West Ukrainian Center “Women’s Prospects” Marta Chumalo.

A specially invited guest, Professor Helma Lutz made a speech entitled “From Euro-integrators to Euro-orphans: female migrants and denial of good motherhood”, in which she said: “Very often, data on migration cannot be accurate because of not all migrants can be tracked. However, Ukraine is welcoming to migrants from other countries. Ukrainian migrant women are usually well educated, learn a foreign language very quickly and adapt to society.”

Marta Chumylo, a representative of the West Ukrainian Center “Women’s Prospects,” emphasized the problems of family separation due to migration. The participants noted that although economic factors were important, the difficult socio-economic situation makes women to migrate. Migration is seen as the only way to solve the problem, so-called “service for the family.” She suggested that migrant women with a successful experience in business should be exempt from taxes for three years in Ukraine.