Emigration of men aged 18–22: which regions lose the most

After the government allowed men aged 18 to 22 to temporarily cross the state border in late August, Ukraine has seen an active movement of young people from a number of regions. The dynamics are especially noticeable in the western part of the country.

This is stated in the material of Hromadske.

From August 28 to September 3, more than 6,000 young Ukrainians arrived in the Polish Podkarpacie Voivodeship alone, while a week earlier there were only 500 of them. Another 4,600 men aged 18–22 entered Poland through the Lublin Voivodeship, which is almost 10 times more than in the previous period.

According to analysts, the greatest mobility is demonstrated by young men from the western regions of Ukraine – in particular Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia and Ternopil. It is in these regions that many relatives and acquaintances already have experience of labor migration, and the logistics of departure are the simplest.

“Many young people from the West of the country had contacts abroad, temporary work, or relatives in Poland or the Czech Republic before this. Therefore, they were the first to take advantage of the new exit rules,” explains Olga Nasonova, director of the Restaurants of Ukraine analytical center.

At the same time, the rate of departure is much lower in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and other large cities in the central and eastern parts of the country. In these regions, there are noticeably fewer applications for dismissal in the service sector, logistics, and retail trade – sectors where young people without higher education usually work.

Experts also explain this difference by social factors: residents of Western Ukraine are better informed about labor migration, already have experience traveling to the EU, and cultural and linguistic proximity to neighboring countries makes adaptation easier.

According to estimates by recruitment companies, the overall dynamics of emigration remains stable, and it is currently difficult to predict whether it will increase in the near future. However, the business environment is already recording the first signals that young workers from border regions are more likely to leave their jobs with the intention of emigrating.

The government is expected to analyze the consequences of this decision in the near future and will likely review the conditions for departure if the situation begins to significantly affect individual sectors of the economy or the demographic structure of the country.

We would like to remind you that after the Ukrainian government allowed men aged 18–22 to travel abroad on August 28, a noticeable increase in the flow of young citizens towards European countries has been recorded . This is especially noticeable in the Polish direction, where the number of departures increased more than 10 times in the first week after the changes came into force.

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