Lyudmyla Chudyovych had a career as a lawyer in Ukraine, and big dreams for the future. That was before the Russian invasion of the country, which forced the 41-year-old woman to put her daughter’s safety first. The two fled both home and work in Stryj in western Ukraine in May.
Since then, Chudyovych has found a new job in the Czech Republic. But instead of practicing as a lawyer, she has to work as a cleaner at a hotel in the capital, Prague. She is still in good spirits.
– It’s just a new stage of my career, she says.
– That is just how it is.
– Ukrainian refugee Lyudmyla Chudyovych makes a bed at the hotel where she works. Photo: AP / Petr David Josek / NTB
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Many are struggling
Chudyovych is one of millions of people who have fled Ukraine since February 24, and she says she feels lucky to have a job at all. As she is not fluent in either English or Czech, she says she has no problem with her new job as long as she and her daughter are safe.
Although the EU introduced rules early on during the war to help Ukrainian refugees find shelter and work in the Union’s 27 member states, many have only now started to find jobs. And many are still struggling to find work while they wait to decide whether to seek asylum or return home.
Around 6.5 million Ukrainians have arrived in the EU since February, according to the border agency Frontex. In the first place, they flowed over to the neighboring countries, before many moved on to richer countries in the west of the bloc. Around half have since returned to Ukraine.
1.2 million workers
Only a small proportion of those who have stayed in the EU had become part of the EU labor market by mid-June, according to the European Commission.
A recent report by the OECD estimated that the impact of the Ukrainian refugees on the European workforce would be about twice the impact of the wave of refugees between 2014 and 2017, which came mainly from Syria.
According to the report, it is the Czech Republic, the country with the lowest unemployment in Europe, which is estimated to take in the most Ukrainians into the workforce by the end of the year with an increase of 2.2 percent. Then follow Poland and Estonia. In total, it is estimated that 1.2 million workers would be added to the European workforce overall, mainly in service occupations.
Nevertheless, it is not expected that this will drive wages down or increase unemployment in European countries. Many are struggling with a shortage of workers, partly due to an aging population.
– If you take into account the need for workers in the host countries, it seems unlikely that this will have a negative impact on the wages of those who already live in these countries, the report states.
– Ukrainian refugees cross the border towards Przemysl in Poland shortly after the war started. Six months later, many of them are still struggling to get a job in the EU. Photo: AP / Petr David Josek / NTB
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Rice and praise from the UN
The EU’s efforts to help the Ukrainians have been praised by both the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other refugee organisations. However, they have also pointed out a certain double standard in view of how people fleeing war or poverty in the Middle East, Africa or Asia often have to wait for years before receiving a residence permit or work permit.
Nevertheless, there are many challenges that await Ukrainian refugees looking for work. In addition to language barriers, educated workers from Ukraine often struggle to obtain approved documentation of their skills so they can obtain better-paying jobs. It may be that their diploma is not recognized in the host country, so they have to take language and training courses before they can restart their career in a new country.
As men between 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine, many of the refugees are women with children, which creates an additional challenge in terms of getting a job. Many women are still considering their options, and some are expected to go home before school starts in September, according to officials around Europe. This despite the fact that the war is far from over.
Most in Poland
Poland has taken in the most Ukrainian refugees with over one million. Only a third of them have found work, according to the country’s Labor Minister Marlena Malag. Some of them have found jobs as nurses or Ukrainian language teachers in Polish schools, while others work as cleaners or waiters.
In Portugal, several of the country’s largest companies have special recruitment programs for Ukrainians, while the country’s Institute for Work and Professional Training offers free courses in Portuguese.
Half of the approximately 900,000 Ukrainian refugees in Germany have registered with the country’s employment agency, but there are no figures on how many of them have actually found a job. The integration group Mediendienst, which surveys migration in Germany, says that about half of the refugees have degrees from universities. However, they do not have figures on how many of them have got a job in their field.
– Optimist
Natalia Borysova was the editor-in-chief of a program on morning TV in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv before she fled with her two daughters, aged 11 and 13, in March and settled in the German city of Cologne. She initially applied for low-paying jobs in cleaning, but eventually decided to turn it down and instead focus on learning German.
– I am an optimist, and I am sure that I will find a job after I have learned the language, says the 41-year-old in a WhatsApp message to AP.
– It may be that the job will be at a different level than in Ukraine, but within the same field. It simply does not make sense to me to work for minimum wage, she says.
Borysova, like other Ukrainian refugees, receives payments from the German authorities to help cover the costs of food and shelter, but she says she wants to get back to work as soon as she learns German.
– Better than flight alarms
In the Czech Republic, Chudyovych is one of 400,000 Ukrainian refugees who have registered for special long-term visas that provide access to the labor market, health care, education and other social assistance. According to the country’s government, around 80,000 have already found work.
At the Background café in Prague’s Old Town, 15 Ukrainians work together with Czechs in a project sponsored by the coffee chain Mama Coffee. The refugees also receive free language courses and other training.
Lisa Himich (22) from Kyiv says she likes her job and feels at home. For his part, Chudyovych says that working as a cleaner is better than living in fear of the constant sound of airplane alarms.
– I thought I was going to miss Ukraine and feel homesick, but that hasn’t happened at all, she says.
– It is peaceful here and I feel like a human being, she says.
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