The seminar lasted only four days, but it was very intense. One of the main topics discussed at the seminar was the question of how to counteract illegal migration flows across borders. In the course of discussions, debates, reports and round tables, all came to the common opinion of the need to develop effective measures to regulate external labor migration and channel it into a civilized direction. The seminar provided an analysis of the actual situation on the services market in the field of employment, as well as an economic analysis of this sphere. Paths for joint work of licensed firms, the FMS and the FSB for the near future were outlined. Throughout the seminar, the participants' desire to jointly create conditions of openness and legality in approaching the issue of external labor migration was evident.
International labor migration has acquired particular significance in recent years. In the modern world, its multidirectional flows significantly affect the development of the situation on regional and national labor markets of Ukraine and Russia. According to experts of the International Labor Organization, the number of foreign migrant workers in the world is between 36 and 42 million people, and together with their family members - from 80 to 97 million. Foreign workers currently constitute a significant share of the employed in many vital sectors of the economies of the world's largest countries.
It should be noted that the policies of Ukraine and Russia and the economic transformations of the last decade have created conditions for our countries to enter the international labor market and led to the development of new realities in the field of external labor migration. Our countries have turned from closed ones with insignificant external migration turnover into active participants in international labor exchange. The flow of citizens going abroad for work is increasing. At the same time, many regions of the CIS countries have begun to actively attract migrant workers from neighboring and distant countries. In the overall system of international economic relations, export and import of labor have begun to play an increasingly noticeable role.
The inclusion of Russia and Ukraine in international labor exchange and entry into the world labor market will immediately reveal many problems both in employment abroad and in the reception and use of foreign labor. The most important aspects of the policy in the field of international labor migration of Ukraine and Russia have much in common with other countries. Now it is already clear to us that to ensure the civilized integration of Ukraine into the system of international economic relations, strengthen state regulation of temporary labor migration of Ukrainian citizens abroad, objectively inform about the conditions of their admission to the world labor market, as well as improve mechanisms for controlling immigration flows, prepare international treaties and agreements in the field of international labor exchange, much attention should be paid to studying the immigration policy, legislation, rules and procedures for entry and employment in other countries of the world.
First of all, it is necessary to have a more complete understanding of the legislation and immigration policy of the main labor-importing states. And as a consequence of the above, special attention should be paid to combating illegal labor migration, since this category of migrants is, as a rule, non-target labor without certain professional skills, knowledge, language training, etc., which undermines Ukraine's authority on the world labor market and has a rebound effect on the image of Ukrainian licensed firms.
The Russian participants of the seminar left already bound by ideas, agreements, and prospects, and on the last day of the seminar I had the impression that I was in a large friendly family of like-minded people. And as a result of the seminar, the All-Russian Association of Organizations-Exporters of Labor Force was created. In Ukraine, such an organization has already been created, and it is called the Ukrainian Association of International Recruitment Agencies.
The Russian seminar showed and proved the possibility of prospects in the field of international labor exchange, and I think the experience of Russian colleagues should stimulate us to more actively introduce legal employment of our citizens on the international labor market.