Comparative Urban Studies Project NONTRADITIONAL IMMIGRANTS IN KYIV written by Olena Braichevska Halyna Volosiuk Olena Malynovska Yaroslav Pylynskyi Nancy Popson Blair A. Ruble NONTRADITIONAL IMMIGRANTS IN KYIV Olena Braichevska Halyna Volosiuk Olena Malynovska Yaroslav Pylynskyi Nancy Popson Blair A. Ruble | i | KENNAN INSTITUTE NONTRADITIONAL IMMIGRANTS IN KYIV Olena Braichevska Halyna Volosiuk Olena Malynovska Yaroslav Pylynskyi Nancy Popson Blair A. Ruble ©2004 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. www.wilsoncenter.org Cover Photo: Blair A. Ruble WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS LEE H. HAMILTON, PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Chair; David A. Metzner, Vice Chair. Public Members: James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States; Bruce Cole, Chair, National Endowment for the Humanities; Roderick R. Paige, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education; Colin L. 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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 7 A Demographic and Social Portrait of Nontraditional Immigrants in Kyiv CHAPTER TWO 35 Living Conditions of Nontraditional Immigrants in Kyiv CHAPTER THREE 83 The Socio-Cultural Integration of Immigrants CHAPTER FOUR 107 Losses and Gains, Intentions and Prospects CHAPTER FIVE 119 Immigrants through the Eyes of Kyiv Residents CHAPTER SIX 143 Joining the World:Why Kyiv’s Migrant Communities Matter APPENDIX 161 NOTES 167 CONTRIBUTORS 179 | v | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was conducted in Kyiv in 2001–2002 with the support of the George F. Kennan Fund of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Kennan Institute, and with the assistance of the US-Ukraine Foundation and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ukraine.We would like to thank the experts, offi- cials of state executive agencies in the city of Kyiv, and representatives of NGOs for their support and crucial data.We are deeply grateful to the non- traditional immigrants in the city of Kyiv,especially activists from their com- munity associations and interpreters, without whom it would not have been possible to conduct many of the interviews.Their kind assistance not only ensured the success of this study,but also attested to their goodwill, readiness, and interest in constructive cooperation. We would also like to thank Matilda Kuklish and Marta Olynyk for translat- ing Chapters 1–5 from the Ukrainian. | vii | INTRODUCTION n August 2004, Serhiy Brytchenko, the head of the Presidential Administration’s Migration Directorate, called attention to increasing immigration into Ukraine in an article appearing in Uryadovyy I 1 Kuryer, the newspaper of the Ukrainian Cabinet Ministers. Brytchenko reported that the number of people granted Ukrainian citizenship rose by 40 per cent during the first six months of 2004 in comparison to the sim- ilar period in 2003, and by 180 per cent in comparison to the first half of 2002.The Ministry of the Interior similarly observed an increase in appli- cations for permanent residence, the initial step towards Ukrainian citi- zenship. He continued on to note that the number of people adopting Ukrainian citizenship substantially surpassed the number relinquishing Ukrainian citizenship. Ukraine was, in short, becoming a country that was increasingly attractive to foreigners and persons without citizenship. Ukraine’s relatively liberal immigration and citizenship laws account for part of this attraction to be sure.There is more to this interesting story, however. With some notable exceptions, Ukraine provides arriving migrants from abroad with opportunities for peaceful and productive lives. This finding—surprising, perhaps, to many readers—becomes evident from an examination of how individual migrants live in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, as evidenced by the results of a 2001 survey of “nontradi- tional” migrants conducted by the Kennan Kyiv Project. This report reviews the results of that survey. As the young Ukrainian state emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union during the early 1990s, it struggled with several tasks: among them, to establish its place in the shifting landscape of Europe, to create infrastructures necessary for administration of an independent country, and to determine questions of borders, citizenship, and identity.At the same time, the fall of the “Iron Curtain” beckoned to migrants pushed by war, strife, and economic uncertainty in their home countries and pulled by the promise of better lives elsewhere. Ukraine, now with increasingly open borders and no institutions with experience in state regulation of migration, became an arena for the mass relocation of people. Over a period of ten years, nearly two million people arrived in the country | 1 | seeking permanent residency. Most of these were ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants who were living outside of Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed.Approximately the same number of people left Ukraine for post-Soviet countries, mostly Russia, and another 600,000 immigrat- ed to other countries in Europe and North America.2 In addition, over the first decade of its existence as an independent state, the number of foreign immigrants to Ukraine from distant Asian and African countries has increased.This group of immigrants is consid- ered “nontraditional,”since they do not represent ethnic groups that his- torically have lived in Ukraine or the former Soviet Union.3 These immigrants arrive continuously; some intend to reside permanently in Ukraine, while others see the country as a stop-over on their way to Eastern or Western Europe.They have various legal statuses, from official refugees to illegal aliens. Some nontraditional immigrants first came to Ukraine well before 1991. During the Soviet era, international agreements allowed foreign stu- dents and workers to reside in Ukraine. After the break-up of the USSR some of them could not or did not want to return to their home coun- tries. Instead,