The prospects of Sumy oblast population for labor migration to Russia under conditions of Ukrainian political crisis

The article studies the main pecularities of labor migration from Sumy oblast and Ukraine to Russia and the main changes of immigration legislation of both countries in the last few years. This work focuses on the main reasons that make Sumy citizens cross the border to seek a better job and their main destinations. The influence of Ukrainian crisis on relations with Russian federation is being investigated. The number of labor immigrants to Russia is expected to decrease, activating the workers flow to European countries. Russia was always a traditional «recipient country» for Ukrainians, but the past year witnessed a difficult public policy conflict between two countries, that changed the immigrant situation significantly. The rules on stay of foreigners, that allowed Ukrainian citizens to live in Russia for 90 days in 6 months, changed in 2014 accompanied by the increasing of responsibility for violation the rules of immigration and registation, raising the question of introduction the visa regime. The Ruble’s fall and the aggravation of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine forced labor immigrants to face numerous economic problems and risks. The experts think that these factors are likely to cause reorientation of labor migration processes to Poland or other European countries.