On June 10, 2020, the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, held a video meeting with Serhiy Kasyanchuk, Director of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) in Ukraine, with whom it has been cooperating for 15 years.
Opening the meeting, Iryna Kliuchkovska, Director of IECDR, stressed that Serhiy Kasyanchuk is an important figure in the Ukrainian movement abroad, broadcasting UWC policies in Ukraine and building bridges between world Ukrainians and Ukraine.
«First of all, we would like to express our gratitude for your selfless and sacrificial work,» said Iryna Kliuchkovska, «that concerns not only Ukraine within its territorial borders, but also the entire Ukrainian world.»
Director of the UWC Office outlined the most topical issues that the UWC is trying to address today, beginning the conversation with the fact that «the challenges happen every day and they are always new, their dynamics is only growing; processes in Ukraine and in the world are changing very quickly and it is important to understand where we are and where we need to move.»
According to the UWC, there is no systematic state migration policy in Ukraine, there is need for a state institution to deal with these issues. The constant change of politicians and lack of specialists only exacerbate this problem. «I am grateful to IECDR, which for many years has been discussing labour migration at scientific conferences, attracting experts and developing proposals to the authorities. Today, these developments are very useful for our work,» underlined Serhiy Kasyanchuk.
In this context, Iryna Kliuchkovska noted that for many years the Institute has been defending the fact that a separate body should be formed to ensure policy of cooperation with Ukrainians abroad: «There must be a clear vertical, and only then consistency and systematization will be ensured. The lack of a separate institution, whose function would be to coordinate the work of different departments, does not contribute to effective and coordinated work.»
Serhiy Kasyanchuk also outlined the development of the legislative process in the field of multiple citizenship, spoke about all the difficulties and presented the UWC’s position on this issue.
At the end of the meeting, the participants came to the common conclusion that there is still a lot of work to be done and only by joint efforts these global issues can be resolved.
