Reasons of Ukrainian migration to Italy: a sole interplay of the economic benefits and social networks?

The aim of this study is to research the reasons causing the Ukrainian emigration to Italy. Ukrainian emigration to Italy is a phenomenon with two distinctive features: it developed extremely fast and it is unprecedentedly gender unbalanced - female migrants constitute up to 90 per cent of the flows. I will attempt to investigate whether migration of the Ukrainian women to Italy is determined only by economic factors and social networks, as it is stated in previous researches. I will suggest and discuss the possible existence of the previously unspoken reasons. The purpose of my work is to present a more complex overview of the reasons causing this phenomenon than it is dominating in the previous research. This paper, however, is a contribution to the ongoing discussions about the phenomenon, rather than final explicit depiction of the “truth”. In order to reach my goal of widening the spectrum of possible factors influencing the migration flows in question, I will produce a documental analysis (comparison of the normative acts), followed by the analysis of the three sets of interviews. Interviews were collected by face-to-face interviewing (the transcripts of these semi-structured interviews were obtained from the CeSPI research centre in Rome, Italy), a self-designed questionnaire with a large share of open questions and a thematic inquiry. For the analysis of the interview sets I will use the qualitative content analysis varying and combining positivist, emotionalist and constructionist approaches. My research has a qualitative nature and the results can be generalized theoretically. The research findings show the consistency with the results of the previous research, claiming that the severe financial hardships combined with an existence of the social networks are the decisive factors for Ukrainian migration to Italy. My research, however, has also shown that the element of the lifestyle migration takes place in this phenomenon. I came to the conclusion, that for at least a part of Ukrainian emigrants, migration can be seen as a way to a more fulfilling lifestyle and not simply to money earning. Asiasanat:Ukraine, migration, Italy, reasons, economic benefit, social networks, lifestyle migratio