Until recently, Russia was the primary destination country for Belarusian migrants. However, as Russia’s attractiveness for Belarusian labour migrants has declined in recent years due to the 2014-2016 economic recession and the depreciation of the Russian rouble, Belarusian labour migrants have started to reorientate westwards. European states, struggling with labour shortages, have also gained in popularity among Belarusian migrants as migration destinations. Additionally, the westward reorientation of Belarusian migrants was facilitated by the introduction of specific policy instruments, such as, for example, the simplified employment scheme and the Polish Card in Poland. These factors have contributed to an increase in the number of Belarusian circular migrants, and it can now be estimated that there are between 30,000 and 70,000 Belarusian circular migrants in EU and EFTA countries.
During the first CIRCMIGR webinar, the speakers will discuss the following issues:
- How to count circular migrants?
- Push and pull factors – why Belarusians are interested in short-term migration to European states? What is the situation of youth on the Belarusian labour market?
- What is the profile of a Belarusian circular migrant in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic?
- What are the economic effects of the circular migration of Belarusians for Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic?
Moderator: Agnieszka Kulesa, CASE Economist
Speakers:
- Piotr Kaźmierkiewicz, CASE expert, Poland
- Šárka Prát, Director, Institute for Politics and Society, Czech Republic
- Marek Radvanský, Institute of Economic Research of Slovak Academy of Science
- Kristina Richter, Youth Labour Rights Belarus
- Andrei Yeliseyeu, Associate Researcher, CASE Belarus
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