Vijeyarasa, Ramona --- "The Cinderella syndrome: Economic expectations, false hopes and the exploitation of trafficked Ukrainian women" [2012] UTSLRS 23; (2012) 35 Women 53

Last Updated: 12 May 2017

The Cinderella syndrome: Economic expectations, false hopes and the exploitation of trafficked Ukrainian women

Synopsis
Human trafficking is a multi-causal and multi-dimensional issue. The case of Ukraine evidences this complexity, with relevant factors spanning Ukraine's political history, its relations with the EU and the current state of socio-economic development. This paper focuses on the role of barriers to full and equal participation in the labour market for Ukrainian women as a driver of human trafficking. The purpose is to use qualitative data and secondary sources to assess the extent to which a causal relationship can be identified between labour market barriers and vulnerability to trafficking and trafficking-like conditions that result from the search for economic betterment abroad by irregular or undocumented means. Attention is also paid to the pull factor of images of migrant success abroad, an element which is often neglected in trafficking discussions. Consequently, labour market barriers are intimately connected to the lure of migration success in destination countries, whether true, exaggerated or entirely false.

Key words: Ukraine, labour market participation, employment discrimination, gender inequality, human trafficking

There are many complex and intersecting causes of human trafficking. These “push” and “pull” factors have been described at great length in the literature, although quantitative and qualitative evidence is often lacking. The identified “causes” of human trafficking span gender inequality, social and political unrest, media images of wealth, transition, conflict, weak regulation, the existence of a market for sexual services and real or perceived job availability abroad (Zimmerman, 2007: 147; Kelly, 2005: 241; Kligman and Limoncelli, 2005: 125-126; Demir and Finckenauer, 2010: 83). While I acknowledge the existence of multiple factors, this article focuses primarily on the relationship between women’s ability to access domestic labour markets and irregular migration. By irregular migration, I am referring to those migrants who enter a territory or state without the required documentation, or enter with the require documentation but later lose that permission to stay. I undertake this analysis through a case study of trafficking from Ukraine. My primary purpose is to two-fold: first, to identify the types of barriers women in Ukraine experience in accessing fair and decent work in the domestic labour market and second, to explore the relationship between these barriers and decision-making that leads to exploitative and trafficking-like work abroad.

Human trafficking is frequently framed as the result of involuntary movement by victims, with stories of women who are lured or kidnapped against their will. Trafficking is viewed as something that happens to women, as opposed to exploitation experienced by women who make a concerted and legitimate attempt to change their lives. In this regard, attention is often focussed on the figure of the young naive woman who is unwillingly and sometimes unknowingly sold by her family or husband into sex work (see the story of a Nepalese girl, Chamoli, described by Balos, 2004: 137).

In contrast to this framework, I argue that voluntary decision-making and movement is inherent in many trafficking situations (see further, Vijeyarasa, 2010: 217). As research increasingly demonstrates (for example Banerjee, 2006: 192-193; Chapkis, 2003: 931-932), modern-day trafficking frequently involves the economic migrant, who may even know that the tourist visa on which he or she travels has been obtained without disclosure of the intention to work in the destination country. A significant number of victims of trafficking, therefore, do consent to their initial entry into a situation that involves unexpected exploitative or coercive conditions of work. It is this exercise of agency that I refer to as voluntariness.

Assuming that some level of agency is involved in the decision-making of migrants seeking economic betterment, women’s marginalisation from job opportunities at home is frequently deemed a driving force. My main objective in this paper is to use qualitative data collected from key informants in Ukraine to assess the accuracy of this relationship between the domestic labour market and human trafficking. The primary theoretical approach is one of a gender lens, with the predominant focus being Ukrainian women’s experiences, alongside migration theory related to “push” and “pull” factors.

In the first section of this article, I provide an overview of the methodology used for this fieldwork. Next, I undertake an analysis of the historical, legal and political context, including Ukraine’s transition, the position of Ukraine in relation to the EU and Ukraine’s trafficking laws as a way of setting the scene for the subsequent analysis of irregular migration. The discussion then shifts to women’s labour force participation and the main challenges identified in the literature and by my key informants with regards to women’s full participation in the domestic labour market. In the third part of the paper, I explore the relationship between these labour market barriers and heightened vulnerability to trafficking and trafficking-like conditions that results from the search for economic betterment abroad.

My primary argument in this paper is that there is indeed a connection between inequitable access to labour market opportunities and the search of potential migrants for better economic opportunities abroad. What is particularly unique to the Ukrainian context is how most of these women are relatively well-educated. However, I further argue that this intersection between labour market barriers and trafficking must not be viewed in isolation but rather understood in the context of various other push and pull factors. If women’s unequal access to the domestic labour market were identified as a primary or even significant cause of human trafficking, this would fail to explain the documented numbers of male victims of trafficking from Ukraine. I argue, therefore, that a related issue of relevance is the success stories of migrants from destination countries. Whether true, exaggerated or entirely false, these stories play a major role in encouraging irregular migration. Anh Nguyen, Counter-Trafficking Coordinator at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Mission in Ukraine, has succinctly labelled the role of this imagery of success as the “Cinderella syndrome”, linking such factors as labour market inaccessibility and expectations of opportunities abroad:

I call it the Cinderella syndrome, from the magazines. These girls hear a success story and it only takes one or two success stories that they hear anecdotally to make them think, ‘You know what, I think that is the way.’ And the situation they are living in is so bad, so why not do it (Anh Nguyen, Counter-Trafficking Coordinator, IOM Mission in Ukraine, interview, 13 August 2009).

Anh Nguyen’s comments shed light on the role of anecdotal imagery about real or perceived opportunities for work abroad, when coupled with poor social-economic circumstances in Ukraine. In light of the legal barriers to migration facing many potential migrants from Ukraine, particularly to countries within the European Union, options are often reduced to forms of irregular migration, leaving migrant women open to the risks associated with undocumented status. I conclude by identifying how labour market inequality, alongside other pull factors, such as narratives of successful migration, act as significant influencing factors in the traffic of Ukrainian women.

Methodology

This paper is based on fieldwork that involved 18 semi-structured informational interviews with key informants as well as secondary statistical data and literature by both Ukrainian and foreign authors. Fieldwork was conducted between 31 July and 8 September, 2009, during which time I contacted via email numerous stakeholders from international, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations. I identified these organisations and individuals as potential informants based on an assessment of the key stakeholders working on relevant themes, prioritising such criteria as level of expertise, regional diversity as well as a fair representation of different organisational affiliations (Fig. 1). These affiliations spanned the NGO community, international and inter-governmental organisations, the UN, a donor government and academia. Twelve^[1] informants agreed to participate in a face-to-face interview. Questions were also sent in Russian to ten NGOs from the NGO Reintegration Network which were selected on the basis of geographical diversity. Responses were received and translated into English from four NGOs.^[2]

Staff from two Ukrainian ministries declined to participate in this research (Ministry of Gender Equality and Ministry of Justice). Staff from two additional organisations in Ukraine were contacted, namely La Strada Ukraine and another inter-governmental organisation (which chose to remain anonymous), but were unresponsive during this period of fieldwork in Ukraine. Given the significant role played by these organisations in the field of trafficking in Ukraine, requests for an email interview were re-sent via email in November 2010, and responses to the list of questions were received in the same month.

Face-to-face interviews were preferred, allowing me to recognise social cues like voice, intonation and body language and to build upon the interviewees responses with more probing question, as well as establish a good rapport with the interviewee. Nonetheless, there are many advantages to email interviews, which are increasingly recognised as a valid tool of modern research, particularly as a complement to other methods like face-to-face interviews, including savings in time and financial resources (Bampton and Cowton, 2002: 25), as well as creating more comfort for interviewees who are engaging in a foreign-language interview than talking face-to-face (Bampton and Cowton, 2002: 19). Email interviews are also beneficial when interviewing subjects with closed or limited access (Opdenakker, 2006), in this case, shelter management or staff.

In my interviews, I focused on the key obstacles to gender equality in Ukraine, and how the interviewees compared women’s economic participation in the pre-Soviet and post-Soviet era. I discussed with interviewees the Orange Revolution of November 2004, a turning point both politically and for civil society, and the extent to which the Revolution created or led to changes in women’s economic status. I also sought interviewees’ thoughts on women’s involvement in small business, the particular experiences of women living in rural areas, and key drivers for migration from Ukraine. With experts in human trafficking, I questioned the underlying drivers of human trafficking and the extent to which these might have changed in recent times.

In this paper, I have chosen to focus on data collected from key informants, rather than data collected from individual returnees. This is a recognised shortcoming in this methodology. However, while I note the importance of the voices and first-hand experiences of individuals, my primary goal in this paper is to understand broad patterns of migration and movement. I have therefore chosen to assess the perspectives of key informants of macro push and pull factors and patterns of movement, rather than individual migrant experiences.^[3]

Context: Historical, legal and political context

In the following section, I provide a brief contextual overview that addresses Ukraine’s recent history, including the collapse of the Soviet Union; the influence of the EU migration policies and global and domestic legislation on human trafficking.

Ukraine’s independence, the Orange Revolution and relations with the EU

Prior to 1989, most countries in Central and Eastern Europe had relatively high levels of human development and social welfare (Corrin, 2005, p. 545). Literacy was near-universal and ranked above other countries with comparable levels of per capita income (Corrin, 2005, p. 545). Ninety per cent of women were employed outside the home, although often in jobs that men were unwilling to do as they were considered dangerous, too strenuous or low-paid (Yegidis et al., 2005, p. 213-214). Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Following the transition, various factors, including hyperinflation and dramatically reduced economic output lowered living standards in Central and Eastern Europe (Corrin, 2005, p. 545-456). Feminisation of unemployment and poverty emerged (Malynovska, 2006). As noted by Ukrainian feminist theorist Tatiana Zhurzhenko, additional social responsibilities were placed on women as a result of the increased cost of social services, deterioration in the quality of medical care and the commercialisation of education (2001, p. 37). Consequently, by 1992, what emerged was a sense of “nostalgia” among the poor and working poor of Central and Eastern Europe for the state subsidies lost during the early 1990s, with women’s hard work no longer rewarded by “the institutional services and benefits that they had come to see as their entitlements under socialism” (Gal and Kligman, 2000, p. 116).

Therefore, despite the promise offered by independence, by 1999 Ukrainian democracy was showing signs of strain (D’Anieri, 2007: 5). The main opposition to the government was led by Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister who was forced out of office by President Kuchma after only 18 months for among other reasons, publicly denouncing existing corruption in Kuchma’s cabinet (Karatnycky, 2005, p. 41). With the constitution limiting President Kuchma to two terms, Yushchenko promised that he would make his opponents “see orange” in the November 2004 elections. In response to alleged election fraud and tapes revealing President Kuchma’s involvement in arms trading and the murder of a young journalist, it was estimated that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, more than 20 per cent of Ukraine’s adult population, festooned with orange ribbons participated in a display of civil disobedience in what became known as the Orange Revolution (Hrycak, 2007: 209; Karatnycky, 2005, 35-36).

The Orange Revolution “promised a fundamentally new era of democracy” and was seen as finally bringing Ukraine into Europe “after centuries of externally enforced separation” (D’Anieri, 2007: 3), including a division of control over the executive between the president and prime minister and the freeing of media from state control (D’Anieri, 2007: 243). Yet, Ukraine remains politically divided between the European Union (and its more progressive politics) on the one hand and the Russian Federation on the other (Marples, 2008).

Ukraine’s relationship with the EU principally revolved around the question of cross-border movement, a perception which arguably remains. Heather Grabbe notes how the opening of east–west borders has coincided with a burgeoning internal security agenda within the EU: “For western Europe, the fear of tanks and missiles arriving from across the Iron Curtain has been supplanted by anxiety about uncontrolled immigration and cross-border crime” (Grabbe, 2000: 498; see also Saari, 2006: 8 on EU’s need to respond to the threats of irregular migration and human trafficking from non-EU neighbours). As Grabbe notes, countries like Ukraine have been excluded and left on the periphery of EU policy-making:

For Ukraine and other countries on the periphery of the expanding EU zone, Schengen is foreign policy. Even if the EU sees it as a matter of internal affairs, visa and border policies have a direct impact on perceptions of European integration and on the circles of inclusion and exclusion being drawn by the enlargement process (Grabbe, 2000: 505).

Particularly given the challenges facing several economies within the EU at present, Karatnycky’s 2005 predictions of accession in seven to 15 years’ time (Karatnycky, 2005: 50) seem unlikely to eventuate.

Trafficking from Ukraine: Legislation and scope

Turning to the definition of human trafficking, in December 2000, the global community met to negotiate the drafting of the UN Trafficking Protocol in Palermo, reaching a form of international consensus on a definition of trafficking: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation (Article 3(a)). Having become a signatory to the UN Trafficking Protocol on 15 November 2001 and later ratifying it on 21 May 2004, Ukraine’s Criminal Code has been amended several times to bring the definition into alignment:

Trafficking in persons or the execution of another illegal agreement concerning a person, or the recruitment, transfer, hiding, hand-over or receiving of a person by fraud, blackmail or by taking advantage of a person’s vulnerable status with the aim of exploitation-shall be punishable by a 3 to 8 years jail term (Article 149(1)).

Exploitation under the Ukrainian law includes use in the “porno business”, forced labour or forced provision of services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, bondage, forcing into debt servitude, extraction of organs, experiments on a person without his or her consent, adoption of a person for personal gain, forced pregnancy, forcing into criminal activities, using in military conflicts, etc.

For the purpose of this paper, it is important to note that there are various inconsistencies between the definitions of trafficking in the UN Protocol and Ukrainian Criminal Code. The scope and meaning of various terms, such as “porno business” are not defined. Article 149 provides a broad and complicated definition of “the vulnerable status of a person”, giving rise to an interpretation of human trafficking that includes taking advantage of difficult family circumstances (such as experiences of domestic violence or insufficient household income), through to the victim being a drug user, being young or of a lower level of education. The inclusion of “physical or mental traits or external circumstances” also leaves this definition open-ended and broad.

Ukrainians are trafficked to around 55 different countries, a large majority to the Russian Federation, Poland, and Turkey, but also as far as South Korea, Nigeria and Yemen (IOM, 2006). According to a report published by IOM in 2006, human trafficking for both labour and sexual exploitation was estimated to involve 117,000 Ukrainian victims (IOM, 2006, p. 12), the largest number of victims from any country in the world. However, given the inconsistencies and the lack of definitional clarify in the domestic law noted above, it is unclear whether the 117,000 victims would similarly be considered “victims of trafficking” if assessed against the UN Trafficking Protocol’s definition or national legislation in other countries. Informants, even those specialising in human trafficking, shared with me definitions of trafficking ranging from “restriction of movement” to “your passport is taken away, you do not have control over how many hours you work, what hours you work, how much you earn or you do not earn anything at all”. In fact, a number of informants indicated that alleged traffickers in Ukraine are frequently prosecuted under other provisions, such as Article 303, which concerns “prostitution or compelling to and engaging in prostitution”. I would therefore challenge the contention that Ukraine has the highest rates of trafficking in the world and would argue that the weaknesses in global data make this an unreliable statement.

Given the inconsistencies in definitions and terminology, for the purpose of this paper, my focus is on those women who have sought economic betterment abroad, and then experienced exploitation and trafficking-like conditions, particularly in light of the heightened risk of exploitation that results from their undocumented status (see Kindler, 2008: p. 145). I nonetheless retain the use of the term “victim” to highlight the exploitation suffered by these women and their right to legal redress, recognising that they are simultaneously victims and agents.

Ukrainian women’s economic marginalisation

In this section, I discuss Ukrainian women’s present-day experience of the labour market, and consider some of the barriers to full economic participation that persist in Ukraine. Data from the Ukraine Labour Force Survey (LFS) reveals gender-specific causes of unemployment. It also provides evidence of women’s dominance in agricultural sectors. Moreover, my informants highlighted problems of very low wages and low status work, along with gender stereotypes, discriminatory hiring practices and challenges to obtaining loans to start small businesses.

Women and labour force participation

The Ukraine LFS is widely considered to be the most comprehensive and internationally comparable source of information on the labour market (Ganson and Laux, 2004, p. 3). The 2000 LFS revealed that of the 36.4 million people aged 15-70, 56 per cent were in employment, with an unemployment rate of 11.7 per cent. Twenty-two per cent of women but only fifteen per cent of men were not in employment after finishing secondary school, vocational school or university (Ganson and Laux, 2004, p. 41). The 2000 LFS also revealed that women were much more likely than men to say that they had been made redundant because of restructuring, liquidation, or workforce downsizing (45% of women when compared to 35% of men). Moreover, while there were almost half a million women temporarily absent from work because of childcare and maternity leave, these rates are considered high in light of the low birth rate in the country (Ganson and Laux, 2004).

In regard to women’s paid employment by industry, according to the 2008 UN MDG Indicators, education was the largest employer of women (employing nearly 21% of women in the labour force), followed by health and social work (17%). This was followed by work in the manufacturing industry. One quarter of all women employed can be found at the bottom of the labour market, in elementary occupations. Nearly one in five women worked as service, shop or sales workers (19.9%) (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 33).

Around two in five women (38.5%) could be found in three occupational groups: service shop or sales work; professionals (17%); and technicians and associate professionals (over 15%). However, secondary and tertiary education teachers and high-skilled medical staff are usually grouped under “professionals”, whereas primary education teachers and nurses are found under “technicians and associate professionals”. Therefore, while there is a strong female presence in professional occupations, this largely follows from the strong female presence in two large industries, education and health (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 33). However, at the top of the hierarchy, comprising legislators, senior officials, and managers, the female share was 39 per cent. While significantly lower than the male share, this appears high by international standards. In a 2008 international survey, 28 per cent of 851 firms operating in Ukraine had a female top manager, against 19 per cent of firms active in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, and 17 per cent of firms globally (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 33).

This data indicates an overall pattern of dominance of women in “elementary” or low-status industry such as sales and shop work and gender stereotypical industries (health and education). For example, teaching in primary schools is nearly exclusively a female job: in 2006 98.8% of primary school teachers were women (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 34). Yet a relatively high percentage of women are found in senior management roles.

Wage differentials and discriminatory recruitment practices

Several informants in my interviews noted the problem of the lack of implementation of relevant laws and constitutional provisions to protect the rights of women with respect to labour force participation (see Constitution of Ukraine Article 24). The Law of Ukraine on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men (Equal Rights Act), which has been in force since January 2006, has clear prohibitions on discriminatory recruitment practices and provides for the payment of “equal salaries to women and men having equal qualification and working on equal conditions”.

While wage differentials and discrimination in recruitment practices are not challenges unique to Ukraine, the form they take is particularly notable. There is no identifiable wage discrepancy between men and women in several sectors, including education, health and social work (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 38). However, while there is no identifiable wage discrepancy between men and women working in these industries, these are the sectors in which women unquestionably dominate and these are the sectors in which (together with community and personal services) total average pay in 2009 remain between 6 and 31 per cent below the average monthly earnings (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 38). The volatility of women in labour market in these two sectors is a further challenge: in past economic downturns female workers in these sectors have been particularly hit by redundancies (Klaveren et al, 2010, p. 38). Furthermore, while there is clear statistical evidence of women in senior managerial positions, in this bracket, men earn notably more than women. Data from 2003 revealed that among the top half of income earners, men earned about 45% more than women (Klaveren et al., 2010, p. 39).

In the case of recruitment practices, discrimination is widespread across a range of industries and employers with little or no means of redress. Ms Alekseyenko of the Women’s Consortium of Ukraine offered a stark example on this point:

[J]ust recently, there was a communication in the internet by an NGO that gave an advertisement saying that they are hiring and looking for a young lady for a position of a secretary. And this is an NGO that recently organized a competition for girl leaders... I saw some advertising for a radio looking for a man to be an IT administrator. There are girls who study at the National Technical University and they could work there. It is a stereotypical understanding of vocations (Interview, 31 July 2009).

Furthermore, despite relatively high levels of education among women in Ukraine, this often does not correspond with job requirements (Andrijasevic, 2004, p. 187). Even the government has conceded that the gender parity proclaimed in the Constitution and the Equal Rights Act is not universally practiced. A report prepared by the government for a review by the United Nations of its human rights record^[4] noted the persistence of discrimination on the basis of family status and age, with single women, women with young children, and women over 40 years of age suffering discrimination in public and private sector employment (Government of Ukraine UPR Report 2008, 50). Even though councils in most regions in Ukraine have developed programs to promote equal rights between men and women, the majority of these have been approved without financing and without any reference to the regulation on finance to fund them (Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2008, 11).

As I noted above, redress for discrimination remains a significant challenge. As one informant commented, the Equal Rights Act appeared to be a formative step, but the absence of an enforceable mechanism for redress, whether access to a court or other national government gender machinery, renders it obsolete.Natalia Tochilenkova, who has been working with the Women's Consortium of Ukraine since 2008 as the coordinator of equal rights and opportunities programs, links such discrimination with age, with women under 30 years presumed to want to start a family, and those over 45 deemed “too old for some important work” (Interview, 6 August 2009).

Other interviewees made similar comments about the lack of enforcement of laws that protect against discrimination. I interviewed Anna Lienivova, economist and manager of IOM Ukraine’s micro-enterprise development program, who leads projects using micro-enterprise as a reintegration strategy for victims of trafficking. Ms Lienivova also noted the discrepancies between laws guaranteeing maternity leave and flexibility for working mothers, and the situation in practice. Unlike other informants, Ms Lienivova referred directly to the role of informal and formal pay to explain why seeking legal redress leaves women in a worse position: “Women can complain but they will not want to. The women receive half of their salaries officially and half of the salary unofficially. If they complain, they win in court. The employee will pay them the official salary, which is very low. The unofficial salary is extra money that is not taxed, which they will now lose” (Interview, 3 August 2009). Ms Larysa Magdyuk, a researcher at Volyn National University in Lutsk whose research interests include the history of the gender movement in Ukraine, similarly commented on the lack of enforcement mechanisms for regulations that exist against discriminatory hiring practices: “But nobody controls. There is no system of monitoring and controlling that, no tools for punishment.” (Interview, 4 August 2009).

While these comments cannot be said to reflect all women’s experiences with regard to access to justice for sex discrimination, they reflect upon the impact of widespread corruption and informal labour practices throughout Ukraine as undermining legislative steps towards equality. It became clear from my interviews, however, that the issue is not only implementation but also the provisions within the law itself. For example, Ms Ilaria Carnevali shared her concerns not only about implementation, but about the framework of the law and the absence of provisions on sexual harassment:

Even though the law on gender equality has specific provisions on discrimination etc. there is nothing about sexual harassment or sex discrimination. There is not enough and it is not implemented (Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights Project Manager, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), interview, 11 August 2009).

In addition, women’s expectations have also been lowered by the normalisation of this discrimination: “Women do not believe they can apply for those positions because it is not realistic for them so they decide not to struggle for higher positions” (N. Tochilenkova, Interview, 6 August 2009). Ms Alekseysenko shared this sentiment: “Again, this is about the low self-esteem of our women. Women do not value themselves enough” (Interview, 31 July 2009).

My interviewees revealed a range of other direct and indirect barriers to labour market access. These included women being faced with interrogatory questions about their personal lives during the course of job interviews, including marital status and family planning intentions, and negative attitudes towards feminism that undermine the success of training programs, seminars and roundtables on gender equality. Several informants, through their programmatic and research experiences, noted evident changes in attitudes by men and women in their twenties (N. Tochilenkova, Interview, 6 August 2009; M. Alekseysenko, Interview, 31 July 2009), as well as efforts to change curricula and pedagogical teaching to avoid stereotypes (I. Carnevali, Interview, 11 August 2009).

Real and perceived barriers to small business enterprises

Small business enterprise is often seen as a key way to liberate women, facilitate economic empowerment and diminish the gender pay gap (Phillips, 2005; Pignatti, 2010). However, contradictory statements from my informants leave open the question of whether major barriers exist in Ukraine to small business ownership. A survey conducted in 2002 among 297 women and 81 men in Ukraine revealed a range of reasons for small business enterprise among women respondents, including a desire for independence (25%), as an alternative to being unemployed (18%) and the need for money for survival (14%) (Aidis, 2007, p. 167). Yet, barriers to small businesses enterprise have been identified. Banks and credit unions, from which women need to seek start-up finance, act as additional obstacles. A frequent challenge facing women is their marital status and the inability to provide real estate collateral in exchange for credit, with properties held under a husband’s or former husband’s name. Research conducted by the Women’s Consortium of Ukraine shows that bank requirements for personal property as collateral, and the allocation of high interest rates (between 17% and 28%) for short periods (less than 1 year) can be fulfilled only by a small number of women (Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2008, 39). Rural women in particular face complications in obtaining loans (Women’s Consortium of Ukraine 2008, 39).

Similarly experiences were described by my informants. For example, Ms Magdyuk, who has previously worked for an NGO engaged in promoting small business enterprise by women, noted: “If she is a widow or single mother, the only thing she has to give as collateral is her apartment. And her apartment is not her own because it her children’s apartment, and very often it is the apartment of her former husband (Interview, 4 August 2009). The result, as explained by Ms Carnevali of UNDP, is that “women are extremely under-represented as business owners, both in large and small businesses” (Ilaria Carnevali, Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights Project Manager, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), interview, 11 August 2009). This was a view that was contradicted by Ms Anna Lienivova, IOM’s Micro-Enterprise Development Program Specialist, who presented a different picture of accessibility and success for women in small business in rural areas: “People thought that women are less able to have their own business and so on but the economic statistics show that more than half of micro-businesses in rural areas are owned by women” (Interview, 3 August 2009).

There is evident divergence in the opinions of my informants as to the extent to which barriers exist to start business enterprise, particularly regarding loan accessibility. One factor to consider is that Ms Lienivova’s project involves the granting of micro-loans to male and female victims of trafficking, giving her the opportunity to see the successes of women entrepreneurs but not necessarily the barriers they might otherwise face in accessing a loan if not provided through IOM’s micro-enterprise program. This diversity of opinion is also due, in part, to the success of the mass media in the post-transition economy in promoting the image of the successful women entrepreneur. Feminist theorist Zhurzhenko notes that, like the image of the housewife, the image of the Ukrainian business woman was an important sign of a successful transition: “The image of the successful woman entrepreneur promulgated by the mass media fulfils the function of legitimization of the new market order, much like the image of the happy female Soviet worker in Communist propaganda was used in the past for legitimization of the Communist regime” (Zhurzhenko, 2001, p. 42). While there are certainly successful women entrepreneurs in Ukraine, it appears that the barriers to small-business start-up have marginalised certain groups of women from this form of enterprise.

Overall, various barriers to full and equal labour force participation are evident. These range from dominance of women in low-pay, low-status sectors and normalisation of women’s dominance in these roles; discriminatory and stereotypical hiring practices; and to varying degrees, barriers to small business enterprise.

Economic migration, trafficking and the risk of exploitation

Having outlined the situation of women in Ukraine in the domestic labour market, in this section I assess the relationship between the lack of adequate employment opportunities for women in Ukraine described above and heightened risks of unsafe migration and exploitative labour abroad. First, I consider how labour market barriers act as a “push” factor in decision-making to seek economic betterment abroad. Second, I analyse various other push factors identified by my informants and assess the extent to which reliable evidence exists to support these contentions. Finally, I discuss the narrative of the successful migrant abroad and its impact on the decisions of migrants to seek work abroad. My purpose is to demonstrate how a relationship between domestic labour market inequality and an amplified need for Ukrainian women to seek migration abroad exists, including migration that risks exploitative labour conditions, but how this causal relationship cannot be viewed in isolation from the pull factors drawing potential migrants to destination countries.

Barriers to labour market participation and the “push” of human trafficking

Lack of employment options in Ukraine is clearly one of several push factors of trafficking. As Sophia Lytvyn, consultant and former coordinator of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Anti-Trafficking Program in Ukraine noted:

But I think that again there you can see the main push factors, like high unemployment, very low wages, even for qualified work and I think very poor social benefits for single mothers, minor children. If the person cannot pay for these low social benefits, they will look for work in other countries (Sofia Lytvyn, Interview, 8 September 2009).

Sofia Lytvyn has worked in migration and counter-trafficking for several years, including with the ILO in Ukraine. She noted a clear change in perceptions of the underlying causes of trafficking, particularly among government officials. While trafficking was initially understood as “a criminal issue, issue of prostitution, and issue that should be under the responsibility of Ministry of Internal Affairs,” it is increasingly viewed as a “labour migration issue, a labour market issue” (Interview, 8 September 2009). The labour market was also noted as the most prominent “push factor” by other informants. For example, one informant contended that “The combination of the economic need and lack of opportunities for satisfying it would appear the most prominent”, with the same informant also identifying lower expectations for conditions of work: “Other contributing factors include perceived acceptance of working or performing services in sub-standard conditions” (Anon., Inter-Governmental Organisation, Email interview, 29 October 2010). Most unique to Ukraine, this includes for even sectors of the population who have attained higher levels of education.

Trafficking victims are also known to be drawn from across Ukraine, with the exception of Kiev, where there exists more employment opportunities:

The economic situation where it is best is Kiev. So we do not really have victims from the Kiev region because you can find jobs here. If there is a possibility to find a job which is enough for them, they will not go (Dr Irina Lysenko, Medical doctor, IOM Rehabilitation Center, Kiev, trans. interview, 20 August 2009).

Anh Nguyen broadened the discussion in this regard, referring also to the lack of a social net in Ukraine: “There is no sense of security here so they decide to take the chance. And a lot of people say they had jobs [in Ukraine]. Maybe the job was not what they wanted or they did not earn enough money so they decide to go abroad” (Counter-Trafficking Coordinator, IOM Mission in Ukraine, interview, 13 August 2009). He also clearly situates victims of trafficking within the broader migration context, commenting, “You take a look at research from remittances and you will find that migrants have a specific planning goal in mind, in terms of how much they wanted to earn before they come back”. Combining these two views, it appears, therefore, that it is not only a question of labour market challenges in Ukraine but simultaneously perceptions of opportunities abroad. Indeed, the very notion of the “Cinderella syndrome” raises the question of the extent to which unrealistic expectations of the prospects of work and life abroad can attract women with decent working conditions in Ukraine.

Labour market access plays a crucial role in trafficking from Ukraine. In some situations and perhaps in other countries, voluntariness of the victim is much less pronounced, with coercive movement leading to trafficking. However, in Ukraine there is a direct connection between lack of viable economic alternatives at home and decision-making to seek economic betterment abroad, even under the risky conditions that often arise through irregular (undocumented) migration.

Other factors that exacerbate vulnerability to exploitative work abroad

A question remains concerning the extent to which labour market barriers are connected with other perceived causes of trafficking. Elvira Mruchkovska, Director of the NGO Suchasnyk in Chernivtsi, placed these economic pressures in the context of abuse in the home:

This philosophy is common for traditional families where a woman depends on a man. Therefore, labour migration has a woman’s face (dominated by women), as women not only seek to earn income in order to be able to afford a separate dwelling and avoid abuse in this way, but also to avoid any future dependence on the part of their children (Interview, 3 September 2009).

However, methodologically sound evidence on a relationship between human trafficking and domestic violence remains weak globally. In similar terms, Olena Kustova, a lawyer and Program Manager in the Law Enforcement Section of the US Embassy to Ukraine, pointed to the combined roles of economic inequality and domestic violence. A former representative of the NGO Winrock International, Ms Kustova is the primary author for content on Ukraine for the annual US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. She drew from previous work with Winrock International in 1998 in identifying what were then considered two major push factors for migration: first, the lack of economic opportunities for women and second, domestic violence (Interview, 2 September 2009). Again, there is no sound evidence to support intuitions of this causal relationship.

It is important to note that while low levels of education are often assumed to have a crucial link with vulnerability to trafficking, economic inequality and vulnerability to trafficking from Ukraine are not linked to low levels of education. Dr Irina Lysenko is a psychologist at the IOM Kiev Rehabilitation Center, which was founded in 2003 and as of March 2010 had helped over 1,250 victims of trafficking. Dr Lysenko noted that Ukraine seems to be an exception to the global demographic picture of trafficked victims as young women with low levels of school completion:

Forty per cent of our victims have technical school, college or university education... So level of education is quite high and there is no specific relationship between trafficking and the level of education of victims (Dr Irina Lysenko, Medical doctor, IOM Rehabilitation Center, Kiev, trans. interview, 20 August 2009).

Trafficking seems to be more an issue of economic need and filling unemployment gaps in Ukraine. Dr Lysenko links this to familial obligations:

So it is economic reasons why people are going abroad. For example, those young girls going abroad are somehow involved in sexual exploitation. They are independent girls, girls who wanted to help their families and to help the economic hole in their families. They simply want to help their families, which is why they go and look for jobs abroad (Dr Irina Lysenko, Medical doctor, IOM Rehabilitation Center, Kiev, trans. interview, 20 August 2009).

Familial obligations are often identified as “causes” of trafficking in other regions, particularly the Asia-Pacific (Heyzer, 2002: 9; Rushing, 2006). It is interesting that my informants identified a similar push factor in the Eastern European context.

Brazilian soap operas and the successful Ukrainian migrant

My main contention in this paper has been the centrality of labour market barriers to the search for economic betterment abroad, but that this driver of migration (even unsafe or potentially exploitative migration) cannot be viewed in isolation from relevant pull factors. In the following section, I discuss a significant and often neglected consideration in trafficking discussions, that is, the success stories emerging from destination countries. Whether true, exaggerated or entirely false, these stories play a major role in encouraging irregular migration. From my informants, these stories appear to be largely anecdotal. This was described to me by one informant as the parading of success: “Someone goes abroad, comes back and says, I married a German and now they are a German citizen. So they come back and parade around their village as a success story. Or they were lucky and the agency was honest and they were able to remit thousands of dollars back to their home” (Anon., Inter-governmental organisation, 13 August 2009).

We can add to this view the imagery offered by another Ukrainian informant about life abroad, with Ukrainians seeing “endless soap operas from Brazil, and they are interested to go and see this life. People expect it is a very rich country because of what they observe in the soap opera. They see expensive villas, expensive houses and they think in Brazil everybody is living like this, which is not true”.^[5] When questioned about people’s understanding of risk and danger, one informant noted that people “know about the problem, but they think that it will happen to other people, but it will never happen to them” Oksana Horbunova, Deputy Coordinator of Counter-Trafficking Program, IOM, Interview, 3 July 2009).

Stereotypes and false expectations were highlighted by other informants. One informant noted:

Also, some young women from rural areas watch television and see some successful stories about women who went abroad to work as waitresses or even prostitutes and found a man and married and are happy etc. Even through television, some stereotypes exist because women think that, ‘oh, it is not a real problem so I will be a prostitute for a couple of months, but later I will have a very happy life’. Again, this is some kind of stereotype that exists.

The imagery identified by my informants is frequently neglected in research on trafficking. This is particularly the case where trafficking is not seen as resulting from attempted migration and where the agency and decision-making of the individual victim is ignored or excluded from the discourse. Consequently, pull factors such as the Brazilian soap opera or the Cinderella story, are ignored as drivers of trafficking.

Perception of risks when seeking economic betterment is a further consideration. As a study of 14 women irregular migrants from Ukraine to Poland revealed, one factor among potential migrants is the financial investment, including visas, in entry and exit from the destination country (Kindler, 2008: p. 150). Lack of visa requirements and ease of cross-border movement are linked to Russia remaining a major destination country for Ukrainian migrants. As noted by one informant, “During Soviet times, we were brought up helping each other. We have to help each other. They were called sisters and brothers. It is still in our blood. That is why they say in their mentality, it is scary to go to any other country but Russia, nothing will happen there” (Dr Irina Lysenko, Medical doctor, IOM Rehabilitation Center, Trans. Interview, 20 August 2009).

Before concluding this section, it is important to give attention to existing evidence on the trafficking of men. Given this evidence, it would be erroneous to consider that the barriers facing women to the domestic labour market are the only drivers of trafficking, although it is beyond the scope of this article to explore how the drivers of trafficking differ between the sexes. Victoria Ostapchuk, director of Avenir, a counter-trafficking NGO and member of the Ukraine 30-NGO Reintegration Network, estimated that men form 45% of trafficking victims (Victoria Ostapchuk, Avenir, Zhytomyr Oblast, trans. interview, 13 August 2009). While reports documenting the traffic of men (see Surtees, 2008) are rare, men also face social pressures to migrate. As Tatiana Ivanyuk, counter-trafficking specialist with the IOM Mission in Ukraine noted:

Men and women receive social pressures. Throughout Ukraine, men are still very much under the traditional gender pressures and the traditional gender expectations of men. Men should provide for the families, families do not have income so they keep pushing on men. In that way, there might be a bit more pressure on them but generally, the push factors are quite similar (Tatiana Ivanyuk, Counter-trafficking specialist, interview, 3 September 2009).

It is possible that further research on male migratory practices in the period following the onset of the global financial crisis between 2007 and 2010 might reveal even higher numbers of men facing exploitation abroad.

Conclusion

Numerous factors drive both documented and irregular migration, including more open borders in some instances and closed borders in others, as well as the role of changing labour market conditions in places of origin and destination. As a starting point, it is essential to recognise the agency involved in decisions taken by both irregular and regular migrants, although this agency is often ignored in definitions and understandings of human trafficking. Second, it is clear that both economic “push” and “pull” factors are at play in women’s decision-making, with labour market inequality experienced at home by Ukrainian women being an important factor in migration practices that create risks related to the undocumented status of migrant women.

Clear push factors are evident in women’s lack of fair and equal access to the domestic labour market. Regarding Ukrainian women’s labour market position, not only is women’s labour force participation lower than men’s, but inequality is evident in several other respects. Women dominate what can be considered stereotypical sectors, including education, health and shop or sales work, sectors in which despite the absence of a gender gap, employees pay considerably lower wages than the average monthly earnings. Volatility to redundancies during economic downturns is also a factor. However, attention must also be paid to the pull factor created by narratives of successful migration.

The results of my research lay the foundation for further research on barriers to the labour market as a major driver of irregular migration and the exploitation some or many Ukrainian women face when seeking employment abroad. It is unclear, for example, how women migrants balance conditions at home with perceived prospects of work abroad. In this respect, micro-financing projects may have limited value if women will continue to be drawn by the possibilities of finding work and the lure of opportunities to successfully establish a life abroad. While several informants were of the view that women would stay home if their socio-economic circumstances improved, this may not be a view held by the women migrants themselves.

Overall, what is clear from this study is there is a direct correlation between the denial of full economic participation for women and the desire to seek employment opportunities abroad. Other factors are at play, however, including the social perception of working life and economic opportunities abroad and though to undermined degrees, other socio-cultural inequalities in Ukraine.

Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the International Organisation for Migration Mission Kiev for logistical assistance and providing me with office support during my fieldwork in Kiev. I particularly want to thank all my interviewees in Ukraine for their time and contributions to my research. Thank you also to my supervisor Dr Helen Pringle from the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of New South Wales and to José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, for their valuable comments on several earlier drafts of this paper. I bear sole responsibility for any errors or omissions.

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^[1] Eleven of the interviews were conducted in English. The interview with Dr Irina Lysenko, a medical doctor at the IOM Rehabilitation Center in Kiev, was conducted in Russian, with Irina Titarenko, Senior Reintegration Programme Assistant from IOM’s Mission in Ukraine, translating from Russian to English. All interviews were transcribed by the author and the interview records and transcripts are on file with the author. Two of the email interviews were conducted in English. The questions that were sent to members of the NGO Ukraine Reintegration Network and the responses received were translated (from English to Russian and vice versa) by Roman Ilto, a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Comments by informants quoted in this article have not been edited.

^[2] Two of these NGOs are based in the Zhytomyr oblast (Women’s Information and Advisory Center and Avenir, one is based in Lugansk Oblast (Women of Donbass), and one is based in Chernivtsi Oblast (Suchasnyk).

^[3]As part of my PhD research, I also collected data from 104 individual trafficked returnees from Ukraine through a self-completed questionnaire. The analysis of this data has not yet been published.

^[4] This process, known as Universal Periodic Review, involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States by the Human Rights Council once every four years. The process started in April 2008 and the 1^st cycle of reviews will be finished by 2011.
^[5] According to one of my informants, these soap operas discontinued several years ago. Soap operas either, therefore, remain of some influence or continue to be perceived as an influencing factor by experts working in the field of trafficking.