Ukrainian illegal migrants, doomed to live in the German underground, await May
German companies need 3 million highly qualified workers. They are even offered a special bonus if they arrive in the country after May 2011. According to predictions by the Federal Employment Agency, between 100,000 and 140,000 people seeking temporary or permanent employment will enter Germany from the Eastern European countries of the European Union each year. Not always highly qualified.
Along with German residents, illegal migrants also held their breath. And primarily Ukrainians, for whom Germany has replaced Ukraine as the breadwinner. According to expert estimates, there are about 1.7 million Ukrainian labor migrants in European countries, and over 4.5 million worldwide. How many of them are illegal has not been counted. It is only known that illegal migrants make up approximately 70% of all Ukrainian labor migration abroad.
"LABOR MIGRANT" ECONOMY
Ukrainian migrants, most of whom come from Western Ukraine, have been building their “economy” in Germany for years. From the early 1990s until recently, the conveyor belt of illegal jobs did not falter. It fully met the requirements of the so-called circulating migration. It was precisely this that was well tested in Germany.
Illegal migrants have created their own network of jobs, passed on like a baton among members of the same family, village, or town. Local “employers” have developed their own labor exchange “by acquaintance.” A recommended illegal migrant has a much better chance of getting a “job” than someone looking for work through an advertisement. While one is working in Germany, another family member “rests” on the “earnings” until the need for money drives him back on the road.
Then an exchange takes place. Each person keeps a job for a “relative.” This is how the principle of “worker solidarity” works without any trade unions or worker cells. They are clearly lacking, since illegal migrants as a social factor still need professional protection.
There are known cases where illegal migrants have lived and worked abroad for 20 years without leaving. Without documents, without health insurance, without pension guarantees. Some manage by going to cheap doctors or using the services of the Red Cross. Others have to pay for their “illegal status” with their own lives.
In 2010, at the fourth stage of stomach cancer, 26-year-old Ukrainian Inna K., originally from the Ternopil region, turned to German doctors using someone else’s insurance card. She came to Berlin young and healthy, and after three years of wandering through “labor migrant” jobs, she was taken home to die. German oncologists threw up their hands: “Too late.” At home, her 4-year-old daughter was waiting, who saw her dying mother for only two weeks after her return from Germany. Relatives are convinced that if she had had health insurance in Germany and legal status, the tragedy would not have happened.
German public organizations that provide medical assistance to migrants without documents have long been sounding the alarm about the catastrophic state of healthcare for migrants in Germany. Illegal migrants are practically excluded from the sphere of medical care. The issue of whether a doctor is obliged to report a patient without documents to the police is still being discussed. Activists advocate for the removal of this obligation from doctors. Many European countries have long forgotten about such “barbarism.”
Illegal migrants remain the least protected both socially and legally. Or more precisely, completely unprotected. The work performed by Ukrainian illegal migrants in Germany is the least skilled, “black” work. At any moment, an illegal migrant can be deprived of work without explanation or apology. This approach has become entrenched towards so-called “maids.” Finicky employers can at any moment “throw down the stairs” a “servant” who has displeased them. The illegal migrant is happy with any work and accepts the “master's airs” as a reality that cannot be avoided. If his work had legal status, the relationship between the employer and the worker would also change.
COMPETITION IN THE “BLACK MARKET”
In the “black market” of labor, trends toward crisis have recently emerged. There are fewer “jobs” and more competition. Fewer Germans want to use the services of illegal cleaners, nannies, and caregivers for the elderly. Some due to the consequences of the financial crisis, others to avoid breaking the law. For officially registered office and residential cleaning companies, which offer quite affordable prices for cleaning services, the influx of “official” workers from Eastern EU countries is very welcome.
Will this mean that illegal Ukrainians in Germany will be left without work? Quite possibly. Poles, Balts, and Romanians no longer feature prominently on the “blacklist” of the German police, who are fighting illegal migrants. After the entry of Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Slovakia, neighboring Ukraine, into the European Community, citizens of these countries can freely stay in the European Union and work within the existing rules.
Some of them went to Ireland, England, where the pay for legal unskilled workers is higher. Some have already returned from there, having tasted the consequences of competition on the island. Those who remained in Germany joined the ranks of the profitable elderly care business. Entire Polish families on one side of the Oder are on duty caring for lonely German old people on the other side. And Ukrainians are left with scraps in cleaning restaurants, apartments, and looking after small children.
The old Soviet 'we will spare no expense' sometimes rewards them with decent pay if the work is for well-earning 'employers.' But even those try to save money on defenseless workers. Many examples are known when Ukrainians were tricked not only by former Soviet fellow citizens but also by 'law-abiding' Germans. Cases of companies disappearing, liquidating themselves, or outright refusing to pay for the work of a Ukrainian unprotected by any laws are quite common in Germany, not only for illegal workers but also for legally employed ones. And try to defend yourself before German justice when even Germans themselves break their legs trying to do so.
IN ANTICIPATION OF CHANGES
So Ukrainian illegal immigrants in Germany are holding their breath. They still harbor hope that 'at the top' they will adopt important visa-free agreements between Ukraine and the European Union. Then with a stroke of the pen they would turn from illegals into legal citizens of the European space. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian and German governments are increasingly concerned with the free movement of goods rather than people. And if they open borders for anyone, it will primarily be for selected groups of the population.
‘Zarobitchane’ in Ukraine are not so much an unselected as a forgotten part of society. True, they are remembered when looking for sources of revenue for the state treasury. Then taxes from their millions in remittances from abroad would be very welcome. According to the National Bank of Ukraine, ‘zarobitchane’ transfer about $6 billion from abroad each year, which amounts to 4.6% of the domestic gross product.
Otherwise, the drowning must save themselves. And ‘zarobitchane’ have taken up saving themselves, but increasingly in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Many public organizations of Ukrainian migrants have formed there. It is easier for them to raise a ruckus. They have at least some status as Ukrainian migrants, allowing them to live and work legally.
In Germany, illegals are traditionally not seen. And it's not just Ukrainians who are so inconspicuous. 'In Germany, migration has no nationality,' the article's author was told by Joachim Sauer, responsible for Ukraine at the charitable organization 'Renovabis.' Nevertheless, it was their organization that initiated a project to study the state of Ukrainian labor migration.
In 2010, 13 German researchers traveled to Ukrainian villages in Western Ukraine, and they even lived in migrant families. The goal was a scientific study of the reasons for Ukrainians leaving the country. It is unclear why the Germans needed to travel so far when in their own country any Ukrainian migrant could explain in accessible popular form the reason for their stay in a country with a developed economy.
During the years of independence, the Ukrainian government has managed to sign bilateral agreements on ensuring the rights of Ukrainian migrants with only a few countries. With Germany, for example, where a large Ukrainian community lives, nothing has been signed yet. Hryhorii Seleshchuk, head of the migration commission of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, noted in a conversation with the article's author: 'Ukraine and Germany are far from dialogue on Ukrainian migrants. A shift has been noted only in relations with Italy and Portugal. One of the factors why the Ukrainian government has not yet taken care of its citizens in Germany is the lack of public pressure.' And he is absolutely right.
In Germany, there is no one to stand up for the protection of Ukrainian migrants, let alone illegal ones. Of course, the doors of churches for Ukrainian parishioners are open to them. But the list of 'open doors' ends there. The Church is not the player that can exert public pressure on governments. And the Ukrainian diaspora in Germany stubbornly remains silent. The Embassy of Ukraine in Germany is also silent.
IN THE SHADOW OF ILLEGAL MIGRATION
Recently, German journalists have increasingly been paying attention to migration from Ukraine. Last year, on the initiative of the article's author, journalists from the German channel ZDF managed to shoot a documentary film about the fate of Ukrainian female labour migrants in Germany and the situation of their children in Ukraine. The content of the film can be judged by its title 'In the Shadow of Illegal Migration.' They planned a sequel – 'The Village of Abandoned Children.'
Journalists urge German society to think about the double standards of their morality. After the high-profile visa scandal about the problem of Ukrainian migrants in Germany, it seems to have been successfully forgotten. And after the change in Ukraine's political course towards Russia, they breathed a sigh of relief. But they still have no intention of giving up the services of illegal migrants…
Meanwhile, German children unwittingly learn the Ukrainian language from communicating with Ukrainian babysitters. They miss them and even shed tears when they leave. Accustomed to giving warmth, caring Ukrainian mothers are not stingy with it for their little charges. And who knows, maybe it is not so bad that a new generation of Germans is being raised by warm-hearted nannies from Ukraine while their parents focus on career growth. But who will give warmth to their children in Ukraine? A phone call, a package from mom, and a lingering feeling of anticipation? Our societies have long been waiting for change.
Olga SAMBORSKA,
editor of the magazine 'Immigrada'.