Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has created the position of Ambassador for Special Assignments to Counteract Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination. The ministry’s press secretary Andrii Deshchytsia announced on Nov. 13 that one of Ukraine’s most experienced diplomats, Oleksandr Horin, has been appointed to this position. He will be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the ministry and other government bodies in addressing possible conflicts on religious, ethnic, or national grounds.
Experts say that with every passing year the problem of tolerance becomes more acute, and Ukraine has also been affected. Specialists at the State Institute for Family and Youth Development believe that the worldwide growth of intolerance is caused by the tragic events of 9/11 in the US, the Iraq and Chechen wars, fermenting xenophobic sentiments in Russia, the huge gap between the poor and the rich, and continuing electoral battles. The last two factors are most applicable to Ukraine. Ombudsman Vasyl Tereshchuk noted that in 2006-2007 nearly 100 cases of hostility caused by xenophobic moods were recorded in Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of 20 people of other nationalities.
“In the last two years we began keeping track of cases in which foreigners were attacked on racist grounds in Ukraine,” said the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ukraine Jeffrey Labovitz. “We are getting an increasing number of complaints from labor migrants and fugitives about attacks and financial extortion. Victims claim that they did not receive protection. We have also found that foreigners are afraid to contact the police because they are not sure whether they will be given protection. It should be emphasized that since late 2006, when several murders linked to xenophobia occurred in Ukraine, no one has been punished for these crimes.”
Olga Vorontsova, a legal counselor at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine, agrees. She calls fugitives and labor migrants the most vulnerable population groups (owing to their lack of finances, poor language proficiency, etc.). She distinguishes two aspects of the problem: discrimination (in education, employment, and document processing) and hostility (in mass media, on the Internet, etc.). It was a step forward, she says, when the Ministry of Education and Science acknowledged discrimination against foreign students in our institutions of higher education and called for tolerance among students.
The wave of migration includes both labor and education migrants in Ukraine. The State Institute for Family and Youth Development recently conducted a study of the tolerance level among young Ukrainians and concluded that young people who are unemployed and not seeking employment are among the most intolerant people in Ukraine. Although this is not a large group (2.8 percent of the population), Iryna Zhdanova, a research associate at the institute says that this is the fly in the ointment. It is important to note that these statistics do not refer to young people who are studying or temporarily out of work for health reasons (these people are especially tolerant, experts say).
“Young people quickly adopt things that are informal and radical. Law enforcement agencies have registered 500 skinheads in Ukraine and found the most xenophobic attitudes among 14 to 17-year-olds,” says Zhdanova. “Today young Ukrainians exhibit sporadic xenophobia, so there is no guarantee that it will not spread...One of the important questions in studying tolerance is the issue of trusting people. We asked 14 to 35-year-old people: “How much do you trust people?” Two-thirds said they had to be very careful in dealing with people and a mere one-fifth replied that people could be trusted. This tells us that young Ukrainians are quite wary of people in general.”
Another indicator of tolerance pertains to neighbors: who is considered desirable or undesirable. Respondents were asked to name the representatives of social and ethnic groups they would like to have as neighbors. The majority chose well-known artists and politicians, diplomats as well as large families. Experts say that out of 15 options offered in the poll, potentially dangerous social groups are least trusted: drug addicts, alcoholics, people with AIDS, and ex- convicts. The Roma are undesirable neighbors for 81 percent of young people, irrespective of education, social status, age, etc. Forty-four percent would not have Muslims or labor migrants living next to them, and among unemployed youths the figure rose to 66 percent. Twenty-two percent are against foreign students in their neighborhoods. As far as labor migrants are concerned, young people have contrary attitudes: one-third of them believe that the state should limit their influx, and 12 percent are convinced that they should be banned from entering Ukraine, while 50 percent say precisely the opposite.
Polls show that despite a certain increase of intolerance in Ukrainian society (as compared with the 1980s), sympathy and involvement in other people’s lives are still characteristic of young people.
“I cannot say that young people follow the none-of-my-business principle,” says Zhdanova. “For example, when asked whether they have concern for other people’s lives, 54 percent said they are concerned about the sick and elderly, 42 percent about the unemployed, and 17 percent about migrants. The main motive is sympathy (52 percent), while 47 percent believe that it is in the interests of the state to resolve these people’s problems.”
To prevent sporadic outbursts of xenophobia from turning into a major trend, Ukraine needs a state strategy to address this issue, experts say. Amnesty International’s Executive Director Antonina Taranovska argues that the only body that publicly acknowledges this problem is the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In her opinion, this has a “hit-and-miss effect that does not solve the problem,” i.e., victims remain unprotected and criminals avoid punishment. “Until the problem is acknowledged at the state level, public organizations will have a difficult time cooperating with state agencies,” Taranovska said.
Nonetheless, the situation in Ukraine is not as disastrous as it used to be and not so bad as to warrant alarm. According to Zhdanova, the higher crime level is not a result of dramatic changes in young people’s system of values. It is more likely a consequence of globalization, which has also reached our country. Therefore, instead of blowing the issue out of proportion, it would be better to deal with helping young Ukrainians obtain employment and raising the cultural level. Then tolerance will be the consequence rather than the goal of raising young people.
