Head of Institute of Demography: I really don't want migrants from Iraq, Iran and Syria

Ella Libanova. Photo: LB live

Demographics of Ukraine dictates a harsh reality: the country cannot recover without foreign labor. This was stated by the head of the Institute of Demography and Social Research Ella Libanova at a discussion panel "New Country".

"We will have to attract construction workers – there's no way around it. I think it will be Bangladesh. I really don't want it to be Iran, Iraq or Syria," Libanova stated.

According to her, it may be possible to attract high-level specialists from Europe, however, a fundamentally different source will be needed for grassroots construction work. At the same time, Libanova warned against repeating "Europe's mistakes" with compact settlement of migrants and the formation of ethnic enclaves.

"Immigration policy is primarily a state problem, because the state is responsible for social peace," the demographer emphasized.

According to Libanova's forecast, most Ukrainian emigrants will not return. "Every month of the hot phase of war means that even fewer people will return to us – they are adapting. If a third returns – that's already an optimistic scenario," she stated. World statistics confirm the concerns: in situations similar to Ukraine's, no more than 20% of those who left actually return.

The birth rate in 2025 was 168 thousand newborns compared to 273 thousand in 2021. "There are people to die, no one to be born," Libanova briefly summarized.

As the UOJ reported, Ukraine loses more than a million people annually. Earlier, Minister of Social Policy Denys Uliutin called it a catastrophe that the real population of the controlled territory is only 22-25 million people.

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