Russia’s attack on February 24, 2022 significantly changed the employment structure of migrants from Ukraine in Poland.

The majority of working refugees plan to return to Ukraine despite having found a job in Poland – almost 64%. On the other hand, because of the long war, refugees are increasingly saying that their return will take place in a few years.​

Only 6% of refugees are convinced that they plan to stay in Poland forever. This is almost five times less than declared by economic migrants who came to Poland before the invasion on February 24, 2022. At that time, a third of labor migrants from Ukraine (33%) declared their intention to stay in Poland. This is evidenced by a comparative analysis of portraits of labor migrants and refugees in Poland, based on research by the EWL Migration Platform and the Center for East European Studies of the University of Warsaw during recent years (2020-2022).

Among refugees working from Ukraine, women predominate (95%), while by February 24, 2022, women accounted for less than half of economic migrants (42%). The age structure of Ukrainian citizens working in Poland did not change significantly after February 24. The majority of working citizens of Ukraine in Poland (regardless of whether they arrived before February 24, 2022 or after this date) are people aged 26-45.​

Two-thirds of refugees after February 24, 2022 (71%) came to Poland with children under the age of 18. By February 24, 2022, only every tenth labor migrant from Ukraine (11%) came to Poland with children.

However, until February 24, mainly labor migrants with higher or incomplete higher education (69%) arrived in Poland. After the attack of Russia on February 24, 2022, the structure of education of refugees from Ukraine in Poland is more differentiated. 59% of working refugees have a higher or unfinished higher education, almost a third have a professional one.

The structure by place of residence reflects the sequence of hostilities in certain regions of Ukraine in 2022. In the first wave, most refugees came from the northern and central regions (62%). In the second half of 2022, the percentage of residents of the southern region increased significantly, while the percentage of residents of the central region decreased.

Russia’s attack on February 24, 2022 significantly changed the employment structure of migrants from Ukraine in Poland. After February 24, refugees who worked in Ukraine in the service sector and highly qualified specialists became the largest professional group of people in Poland. Every tenth refugee working (or those who are going to work) in Ukraine was an employee of trade, education or performed physical work.

Most of the refugees were employed in the service sector, hotels, trade and public catering, industrial production, as well as the logistics sector. Until February 24, the largest number of Ukrainians in Poland worked in construction, industrial production, logistics warehouses, and the transport sector.

Migrants from Ukraine who worked in Poland before the full-scale invasion knew Polish better than refugees. Instead, the similarity of the Polish and Ukrainian languages ​​allowed refugees to significantly improve their knowledge of Polish in a few months of 2022. During the first wave of refugees, two-thirds (66%) claimed to have no or weak knowledge of the Polish language, while in the second half of 2022 this percentage decreased by 19 percentage points to 47%.​​

Every third economic migrant who worked in Poland until February 24, 2022 (31%) and every third refugee (33%) speak English at least at a communicative level. In 2022, the value of this indicator did not change.

Ukrainian refugees in Poland: details

Research conducted by the EWL Migration Platform and the Center for East European Studies at the University of Warsaw shows that almost all refugees of working age from Ukraine who expressed a desire to work in Poland found work.

82% of Ukrainian refugees had no work experience in Poland before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, 89% had never worked in the Czech Republic, and 83% had never worked in Romania.