Over 20% of Ukrainian Refugees in Poland Intend to Return to Their Homeland Before Winter, Survey Reveals

About 20% of Ukrainian refugees who have settled in Poland after the war started in late February plan to return to their country before the start of winter, according to a survey conducted by the international employment agency Gremi Personal.

The analytical centre also revealed that around 1,240 people forced to leave Ukraine because of the war took part in this survey, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Such data show that 22 per cent of respondents intend to go to Ukraine this autumn-winter. On the other hand, 35 per cent of them will remain in Poland until next year.

In addition, 26 per cent of refugees intend to return once the war ends. Meanwhile, about 17 per cent of respondents indicated that they would remain in Poland indefinitely.

In this regard, the director of the recruitment department, Hanna Jobolda, emphasized that migrants stay in Poland and other countries because of a lack of hope since some of them have lost their homes, they have no income or job, or they even have a threat for their lives.

As the agency explains, many Ukrainians want to spend the winter in Poland because of the pessimistic forecast for the heating season.

“Some regions of Ukraine do not have stable water supply and heating due to active hostilities. In Ukraine, there has been an increase in unemployment since the beginning of hostilities. At the same time, Poland offers Ukrainian immigrants more comfortable conditions, especially for employment,” the agency noted.

According to Gremi Personal, an increase in the number of women who want to work has also been observed, which may also be related to the beginning of the academic year. The agency also adds that an additional number of Ukrainian women who had to take care of children during the holiday season will soon enter the labour market.

Moreover, an analyst of the centre said that it is expected that the employment dynamics of these women will accelerate already at the beginning of next week.

The data provided by the United Nations Refugee Agency revealed that since the war started in Ukraine, almost two million Ukrainians have arrived in Poland so far.

Regarding the number of temporary protection statuses, statistics from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) revealed that in June 2022, Poland granted the highest number of temporary protections to Ukrainians, thus granting over 60,125 temporary protections.

According to Eurostat, Poland was followed by Romania with 10,360 temporary protection granted, Ireland with 6,985 and Bulgaria with 6,920.