ABSTRACT. This paper explores the corruptionmigration aspirations nexus in Ukraine. The article demonstrates that corruption continues to pervade all levels of Ukraine's political and socio-economic system, and provides evidence from the findings of EUMAGINE project. The study reveals robust evidence that apart from the traditional migration driver -income differentials between source and destination countries -corruption is also a driver of migration aspirations. In summary, our analysis draws attention to the fact that Ukraine does not only suffer from a broad variety of negative externalities, diverse institutional inefficiencies and structural problems, but may also lose -as a consequence of the negative socioeconomic and political effects of corruption -the human capital necessary for sustainable economic development.

This article explores the nexus between life (dis)satisfaction, migration aspirations and return and development within the context of a previously relatively developed but in the meantime deprived post-Soviet country, Ukraine. It is based on a mixed method quantitative and qualitative study conducted from 2010 to 2013. Three key findings have been emerging. First, life dissatisfaction significantly contributes to the emergence of migration aspirations and thus is an important driver of migration. This points to a correlation between the state of development of a country, according life (dis)satisfaction of its populations' and their propensity to migrate. Second, the study suggests that the better educated have stronger intentions to migrate abroad; this trend rather undermines the country's capability to develop further. And third, our findings suggest that (a) expected dissatisfaction with life in Ukraine upon return undermines migrants' aspirations to return or to stay and instead inspires remigration and (b) that those who return have little incentive to invest skills and capital and thereby contribute to the country's development. This raises various policy concerns for so far absent diaspora politics or reintegration measures which we will discuss.

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Iryna Lapshyna – PhD, Senior researcher, South East European Studies (SEESOX), University of Oxford, UK; Associate Professor, Lviv Catholic University, Ukraine. Email: irina.lapshyna@gmail.com Franck Düvell – PhD, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford, UK. Chair of Migration Department, German Centre for Integration and Migration Research, Berlin. Email: franck.duvell@compas.ox.ac.uk Ukraine is a country of significant emigration, mostly to the EU and Russia. Our 2012 survey (N=2,000) found that 49.3 % of the population covered in four selected areas aimed to live and/or work abroad for some time. Subsequent studies confirm that this has not changed. The first key analytical concept applied to our analysis is that of 'perceptions'; rather than focusing on 'realities' as objective drivers of migration, we examine how individuals perceive realities and thereupon develop their 'aspirations', which is the second key analytical concept. Hence, instead of focussing on the conventional macro-level drivers we aim to understand the micro-level drivers in migration processes. This paper specifically investigates empirically the nexus between individual perceptions of social policy and migration aspirations among Ukrainians. Firstly, we explore how Ukrainians perceive social policies in Ukraine and how they compare these with conditions in Europe. Secondly, we analyse the correlation between these individual perceptions and their migration aspirations. Thirdly, we investigate how people perceive migration, in terms of its consequences, advantages and disadvantages. Fourthly, we describe the subsequent emergence of migration motives and aspirations. Our research finds that dissatisfaction with social policy in the sending country as well as positive perceptions of social policy in the destination countries are important contributors to the emergence of migration aspirations. This largely confirms the often-rejected welfare-magnet-hypothesis of neoclassical economic thinking.

This article explores migratory movements with particular attention being paid to the transformational changes and challenges for human capital development in Ukraine. The changes that took place in Ukraine after gaining its independence in 1991 had tremendous impact, both direct and indirect, on many spheres of life, including international migration and human development. The paper addresses the potential substantial problems, transformational changes, threats and risks in human capital development under the condition of developing problem situation further. We conclude that it is necessary to activate work of state governing bodies in eliminating asymmetry: regulation of labour migration, bilateral agreements, and also coordination of national strategic program documents on human capital development with international agreements on regulation of migration processes.