ERASMUS+ AND HUMAN CAPITAL: YOUNG PEOPLE’S MIGRATION CHOICES IN TIMES OF WAR

Abstract

The article examines the impact of the Erasmus+ programme on the transformation of migration attitudes and professional strategies of Ukrainian youth under the conditions of European integration, prolonged migration dynamics, and full-scale war. The topic is relevant because academic mobility for Ukrainian students has moved far beyond its traditional educational function and increasingly acts as a channel of socialisation into the European educational and labour space. In the Ukrainian case, Erasmus+ should be analysed not only as an opportunity for temporary study abroad, but also as an environment in which young people compare institutional standards, living conditions, labour culture, personal security, and long-term career prospects in Ukraine and in EU member states. Such comparison may influence not only educational preferences, but also expectations regarding employment, income, social mobility, professional self-realisation, and possible migration trajectories. The article focuses on the relationship between academic mobility, perceived employability, openness to work abroad, and the emergence of circular or long-term migration scenarios among programme participants. Particular attention is paid to the role of universities as mediators that can either strengthen the developmental effects of Erasmus+ or leave them weakly institutionalised. The study also raises the issue of unequal access to mobility, information gaps regarding employment opportunities in the EU, language barriers, and the need for stronger institutional support before, during, and after participation in the programme. Thus, the paper addresses Erasmus+ as a soft but structurally important factor of youth professional orientation, Europeanisation of expectations, and reconfiguration of migration imagination in contemporary Ukraine. It also considers how the war context intensifies the practical meaning of mobility by making questions of continuity of education, resilience, safety, and future labour market integration especially urgent for students and graduates. The discussion therefore links Erasmus+ to broader processes of human capital development, intercultural adaptation, and the normalisation of international career planning among young Ukrainians.