| Author (Person) | Riabchuk, Mykola |
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| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.36, 13.10.05 |
| Publication Date | 13/10/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 13/10/05 IT WAS a great surprise for many Ukrainians to read of the supposedly 'simplified' visa regime introduced for them by Berlin in 1999-2001. I have never found anyone who actually benefited - perhaps I should broaden my social milieu and look for the beneficiaries among the gangsters and prostitutes supposedly pumped en masse through that legal loophole to Germany. Alas, I mostly know writers, professionals, and suchlike who never knew of Joschka Fischer's generosity. On the contrary, a good dozen of my acquaintances were denied visas during that golden era when Ukrainian prostitutes were supposedly wending their way through the German consulate. Consider the experience of one prominent writer and editor invited to join the Literaturexpress, a millennium train-journey by a hundred writers through Europe. He submitted his application, paid his fee, booked his ticket (non-refundable). A frequent visitor to Germany, holder of a multi-entry five-year U.S. visa, and a man whose name turned up several thousand hits in a Google search - he had little to worry about. And yet a visa was denied. His story ended almost happily, courtesy of the German consul's personal intervention. But five years on it still rankles. "It's not only a matter of 500 bucks - my monthly income," he says. "If they can do this to me - with all my international fame, contacts, protection - just imagine what can they do to an average person!" I know that feeling. Around that time, I was working in Budapest. Initially, I naively believed the visa system that left me jealously watching colleagues make weekend trips to Vienna and Bratislava served pragmatic purposes: to keep out undesirable aliens and facilitate travel for law-abiding aliens. I soon lost those illusions. Since then, I have come to see the real problem as hypocrisy, supplemented by bureaucratic stupidity. Hypocrisy because current policies do little to provide security and serve much more as a form of collective punishment for the sins of corrupted rulers, an assertion of psychological superiority. It is not Ukrainian gastarbeiters who contribute to Europe's economic stagnation, and it is certainly not they who are to blame for the violence and intolerance (let alone terrorism) in Europe. Nor are they numerous (just 0.5% of the non-EU nationals in the Union). Most return home. Those who do stay form no ghettos. Nor would many Ukrainians follow them. A Polish expert, Joanna Konieczna, concluded her research saying "there is no reason to fear any new wave of labour migration from Ukraine. It seems that everybody who wanted to move, has moved. In the meantime, the great majority of citizens are totally uninterested in anything connected with looking for a job abroad." EU visa policies - typically to grant a single-entry visa to each Schengen country, regardless of an applicant's record and professional needs - become even less tenable when compared to the United States' system. The US consulate, the busiest in Kiev, has simplified the visa procedure to one visit. Only one EU state, Poland, runs a system as swift or simple - a sign to many Ukrainians that Europeans look not for solutions, like Americans, but for excuses. Even more striking are the different approaches to multiple-entry visas. Quite reasonably, the Americans look at an applicant's previous record. If a Ukrainian has visited the United States and has infringed no law, a new visa is automatic, usually for multiple entries over three, five, even ten years. This is a friendly approach - and it also shows that US visa requirements really are instruments of national security and not of humiliation. Only good-will is needed if EU states are to apply a policy as flexible and differentiated. Kiev has abolished visas for EU nationals for a "trial period". How EU states respond will say much about their honesty and their competence. Unless the answer is more convincing, all the talk about the "friendly" European Neighbourhood Policy will ring hollow. Ukraine's visa timeline
Commentary feature in which the author compares the US visa system to EU Member States' regimes, considered to be less generous and less effective at holding back unwanted visitors. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Countries / Regions | Ukraine |
