Iryna Lapshyna,

Lviv Academy of Commerce,

Lviv, Ukraine,

E-mail: irina.lapshyna@gmail.com

CORRUPTION AS A DRIVER

OF MIGRATION ASPIRATIONS:

THE CASE OF UKRAINE

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the corruption-migration 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 socio-economic and political effects of corruption – the human capital necessary for sustainable economic development.

Received: May, 2014

1st Revision: July, 2014

Accepted: September, 2014

DOI:10.14254/2071-789X.2014/7-4/8

JEL Classification: D73, F22

Keywords: corruption-migration aspirations nexus, migration aspiration, international migration, Ukraine.