A view of the Uhryniv-Dołhobyczów border crossing point. Credit: Europe WIthout Barriers
There are three morning
buses from Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, to Przemyśl, a nearby
Polish city. But the ticket seller warns us that the last one may not operate
today, so we take the earliest one. The bus is shabby and the passengers seem
to know each other. Thirteen of forty seats are occupied. All of the eyes are
glued on me and my colleagues, strangers from Kyiv, who nobody knows. After
about two hours, we arrive at Mostyska, a small town on the Ukrainian side next
to the Polish-Ukrainian border post of Shehyni-Medyka.
A middle-aged lady gets
on. She is friendly and knows everyone including the driver. She gives each of us
one bottle of Nemiroff vodka and two Paramount cigarette packets – the limit
you can bring duty-free to Poland – before we enter the EU.
Everyone engages in this
“cross-border trade.” The scarcity of jobs prompts locals to search for
any way to make ends meet. Ukrainians load up on cheap vodka and cigarettes in
Ukraine and then hop the border to sell them in Poland. Then they stock up on
goods which they sell back in Ukraine. This is a lifestyle, and those who
engage in it are called “ants,” “shuttles,” or “camels.”
Many Ukrainians work
abroad, and Ukraine’s western regions feel the labor shortage most acutely. Lately
there are more people from eastern Ukraine going abroad. Ukraine’s migrants
usually go for a season to work in agriculture, services, or the car
industry.
At the same time, the
number of long-term Ukrainian residents in the EU is rising. Official numbers soared
from 91,000 in 2009 to 513,000 in 2018, according to Eurostat.
Local employers are quick to point out how problematic labor shortages are. A school principal laments that that he has to keep retired people or bad teachers in place since there is no one to hire. A local civil society representative adds, “Big investors avoid our borderland districts and others as they fear a labor shortage.” But there’s also an upside: The thirst for employees forces local entrepreneurs to raise salaries.
Labor migrants send
massive amounts of money back to Ukraine. About 10 percent of Ukraine’s gross
domestic product came from remittances last year. They sent home a record $11 billion through wire
transfers and cash carried across the border, but this money is simply consumed.
“Instead of opening a business, they build houses and buy phones,” a local
museum director admits.
Our team spent about two
hours crossing the busy border at Shehyni-Mostyska.
In 2018, Ukraine limited
the tax-free import of goods and products from Poland to ease the load on the
border. It also reduced the excise tax on cars with EU license plates. This
helped curb the shuttle trade and reduce the number of cars crossing the border
to avoid taxes.
Poland gave Ukraine a
loan of up to 100 million Euro in 2015 to improve the capacity of three border
posts and repair five sections of road. After long delays, these projects will
finally be launched at the end of 2019, and they can help to revive local
communities. Many communities along these roads are isolated from the rest of
the world and need connections to survive.
On the way back from
Przemyśl to Lviv, the same people are on the bus. Now the bus is packed with
iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, yogurt, and juice. At customs, the lady who gave us
cigarettes and vodka before gets out of the bus with a wad of cash, and when
she comes back, she says thank you from “them.” And then we pass
customs virtually without checks.
Bribes also contribute
to long queues. “While a bus gets stuck and someone tries to ‘solve the issue’
of importing a fridge, for instance, for about thirty minutes we musicians have
to wait behind,” a Lviv artist tells me. The automation of checks, which is
being pursued slowly by customs, could reduce these corruption risks and
potentially speed up the process of crossing the border.
In discussions about
labor and borders, regional development is often overlooked. Make no mistake
about it: the Ukraine-Poland border is crucial for regional development. In the first half of 2019, 412,000 Poles entered Ukraine, while 4.65
million Ukrainians visited Poland during the same period.
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Of course, there’s a
huge disbalance, but locals see huge tourism potential and want to lure in
Polish tourists. For instance, Sokal officials promote the idea of creating
kayak trails along the River Bug for tourists. Also, a chain of forts where a music
and art festival attracted both Poles and Ukrainians in 2009-2012, has a
concrete motive behind it. “Our aim is to reveal this area to potential
investors,” one organizer said.
Two small border
crossings in Lviv oblast also need attention. Since 2019, Uhryniv residents in
Ukraine haven’t been able to cross the border by foot. The only remaining pedestrian
point is in Shehyni, and it’s overcrowded. Locals fret that the closure of the
pedestrian lane in Uhryniv may end their plans to build cycling highways and entice
more Polish tourists who enjoy the region’s ancient architecture and nature to
visit.
Officials cite the
absence of infrastructure like lighting, pavements, rubbish bins, and parking
for closing the crossing. Addressing this situation might convince authorities
to reopen it.
As we leave the Lviv
region, we feel conflicted. On the one hand, the border is overcrowded, and everyone
is hustling. Locals have to work abroad or shuttle to and fro to provide for
their families. On the other hand, there is big potential for
development.
Ruslan Minich is a
policy analyst at the Europe Without Barriers think tank and an author of
research project, “Living
Near the Border: The Cases of Shehyni and Uhryniv Communities.”
Further reading
Thu, Aug 8, 2019
Ukraine can create the conditions where both refugees and asylum seekers can provide for themselves.
UkraineAlert
by
Svitlana Butenko, Stuart Linder, and Valeriia Mykhalko
Fri, Jun 28, 2019
The fight against corruption, linked to a continued commitment to EU integration and general system reform, could greatly boost Ukraine’s economic strength.
UkraineAlert
by
Basil Kalymon
Tue, Oct 30, 2018
Approximately five million Ukrainians, roughly 25 percent of the country’s economically active population, work abroad.
UkraineAlert
by
Andy Hunder
Many Ukrainians work abroad, and Ukraine’s western regions feel the labor shortage most acutely.
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