Iryna Bilokolodskykh and her younger son Rodion have been among the many cohort of Ukrainians who fled to Poland shortly after Russia’s all-out assault on their nation, one yr in the past.
In Dnipro, the Ukrainian metropolis by which she lived, she left behind not solely her residence and family members, but additionally a great job as an government producer of commercials, having beforehand labored for a decade as a banking analyst. She has struggled to seek out something related in Poland, and now works for a basis that organises Polish language lessons for Ukrainian refugees.
Nevertheless, she feels grateful for the job and the chance to assist different refugees. She is on a renewable six-month contract, which in regular circumstances won’t be best, however matches her mindset throughout a struggle that has “taught me to reside within the right here and now”, she explains. “Do I’ve a long-term plan? Sure, however for six months.”
And Bilokolodskykh’s expertise typifies each the successes — and the frustrations — of Ukrainian ladies in search of to work and assist themselves through the struggle.
Poland was the EU’s essential gateway for Ukrainian refugees final yr, with about 1.5mn registering for non permanent safety within the nation, in line with the federal government, and greater than double that quantity crossing its territory on their approach to different states.
Even earlier than Russia’s invasion, Poland already hosted about 1.3mn Ukrainians they usually have helped to combine the refugees.
Of the brand new refugees of working age, the overwhelming majority have been ladies, and between 60 and 70 per cent had discovered an everyday job in Poland by the top of final yr, in line with authorities figures. Poland collected about 4bn zlotys (€840mn) in taxes and social safety funds from Ukrainian refugees final yr and expects that quantity to climb to 6bn zlotys in 2023, in line with Bartosz Marczuk, deputy head of the state-run Polish Growth Fund.
As such, Poland is a standout instance of the speedy integration of refugees into the workforce — reaching a far larger employment fee for Ukrainians than Germany, notes Paweł Kaczmarczyk, head of the Centre of Migration Analysis on the College of Warsaw.
Kaczmarczyk says this success can be as a result of the truth that “the Polish labour market now wants international employees”, and has seen their numbers rising even through the pandemic. However he additionally highlights a mismatch between the excessive stage of training of many Ukrainian ladies and the roles they’ve discovered.
His analysis reveals that between 50 and 60 per cent of working-age refugees maintain a college diploma, however solely one-third of refugees who discovered work in Poland landed top-tier jobs. For the others, he says, there are a number of challenges: Polish demand is generally for low-paid international employees; some Ukrainians can not switch their expertise, notably to jobs that require fluency in Polish; and a few refugees settled in areas that supplied them entry to social providers however poorer job selections.
Amongst those that are struggling is an accountant from Odesa who left final March together with her three-year-old daughter and now works within the kitchen of a fast-food restaurant in Warsaw. She is on a short lived contract that expires in August and prefers to not give her identify as a result of she is “actively searching for one other job”.
However she has not been in a position to collect ample proof of her previous diplomas and work expertise to use for higher jobs. “In Odesa, they don’t reply my emails,” she factors out. For now, she manages someway to pay the equal of virtually $450 a month for a rental condominium, plus $200 for kindergarten and associated prices for her daughter, on a month-to-month wage of $600.
Employers have been eager to welcome Ukrainian ladies. “Many are higher educated, digitally related, and used to work remotely, particularly through the Covid pandemic,” says Franek Hutten-Czapski, chair of Boston Consulting Group’s Polish workplace.
However labour consultants additionally acknowledge that working in Poland continues to be an uphill wrestle for these on a short lived contract, or employed within the underground financial system.
“There was a primary wave of migration however we don’t actually know a lot about what occurred after that,” says Iga Magda, a labour economist on the IBS analysis institute and professor on the Warsaw Faculty of Economics. “In all probability, those that got here later have been a lot much less more likely to have expertise, languages and cash to put money into an condominium.”
Magda estimates that 40 per cent of the Ukrainians who now have a gradual job in Poland are ladies, whereas 60 per cent are males — typically working in sectors equivalent to building the place Ukrainians had a powerful presence earlier than 2022.
“Girls are more likely to work unregistered as a result of many are within the care sector, which continues to be largely a part of our shadow financial system,” she says. The federal government’s official labour registration numbers are additionally unreliable, she provides, as a result of they don’t all the time consider what occurred subsequent: “Girls may register but it surely doesn’t imply that it wasn’t simply with non permanent work [or mean] that they nonetheless held a job one or two months later.”
Nonetheless, some Ukrainian ladies have managed a comparatively easy job switch to Poland, and now work remotely for his or her Ukrainian employers in companies starting from expertise to promoting and advertising and marketing.
“We relocated a part of the corporate to Warsaw as a result of it was the closest huge metropolis [outside Ukraine],” says Dariia Maslennikova, a supervisor at Ukrainian IT firm Nextiva, which moved 20 of its employees to the Polish capital a yr in the past. “The arrival was chaotic, it hasn’t been straightforward emotionally, however there have been additionally lots of volunteers in every single place to assist us and I felt welcomed.”
Maslennikova now rents a flat in Warsaw with a fellow Ukrainian, having beforehand lived within the flat that she owns in Kyiv. She can be going through a better tax invoice than in Ukraine, the place she says the IT sector advantages from extra tax exemptions than in Poland. “The price of dwelling is larger right here, however I additionally know that costs in Ukraine have gone up now,” she says.
Like many others, she expects to reside in Warsaw longer than anticipated and is taking Polish language lessons to assist her combine. “I assumed that I might be right here for a couple of months, however I feel that it’s now going to be for fairly a very long time,” she says.
Supply: Financial Times
