Only one in five Ukrainian citizens forced to leave for Poland because of the war wants to return home before winter. This is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the Analytical Centre of the international employment agency Gremi Personal. 1440 people took part in the survey.

The survey shows that 22.2 % of respondents intend to come back to Ukraine in the next 3 months, 35 % are preparing to stay in Poland for at least a year. Another 25.6 % are planning to return as soon as the war is over, and 17 % are not planning to return to Ukraine at all.

“We anticipate that the majority of Ukrainians will return to their homeland as soon as the danger passes. However, a significant number of citizens will remain abroad due to several subjective factors – loss of housing, low wages, worse living conditions and, of course, the threat to their lives due to the war,” says Anna Dzhobolda, director of the recruitment department of Gremi Personal agency.

The expert adds that the most pessimistic forecasts for the heating season encourage Ukrainians to spend the winter in Poland. In some regions of Ukraine, people risk being left without heating and hot water for the winter due to infrastructure damage. Moreover, while the number of job vacancies in Ukraine has dropped significantly as a result of the war, the situation in Poland is the opposite and the demand for workers is growing all the time.

“The number of job offers in Gremi Personal in August increased by 7 %, and we forecast that there will be about 10 % more offers in September”, comments Anna Dzhobolda.

The agency is also observing a slight increase in the number of women from Ukraine willing to work, which may be related to the start of the school year. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, 185,000 Ukrainian children have started school in Polish schools.

Adrian Andrzejewski