More than 60% of Poles want Ukrainians to return home

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Poland has sheltered more than 900,000 refugees from Ukraine. Citizens of the neighboring country were quite hospitable – they met Ukrainians at train stations with food, invited them to stay with them. However, over time, the attitude of many Poles towards our fellow citizens has changed. Today, 6 out of 10 citizens of the country are in favor of Ukrainians returning home sooner after the end of the war. This is evidenced by the poll results “Social perception of refugees from Ukraine, migrants and the actions of the Polish and Ukrainian state”, conducted by the University of Warsaw and the University of Economics and Humanities in Warsaw.
Today, only 31% of Poles believe that the country must help Ukraine (a year and a half ago, in January 2023, 62% of Poles thought so). 43% of respondents answered the question about aid to Ukrainians “rather yes than no”. The group opposed to aid increased to 19%.
In addition, 72% of respondents believe that, despite the war with Russia, Poland should take care of its own interests first. 15% of citizens of the neighboring country do not agree with this.
In two years, the number of respondents who believe that Poland should not provide Ukraine with additional support has doubled. Most of all, Poles still want to help refugees financially – to donate food and clothes. But even here, the number of people willing to support refugees decreased from 79% to 62%.
Only 7% of respondents have a very positive assessment of Poland’s relations with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Instead, 18% of Poles call them unequivocally negative.
Currently, about 17% of Polish citizens agree with the need to accept refugees from Ukraine with the possibility of settlement (as many as 37% thought so in January 2023). The vast majority of Poles (95%) believe that it is necessary to reduce the amount of social assistance and reduce other types of support for Ukrainians.
61% of respondents want our fellow citizens to return to the Motherland after the end of the war. 23% of respondents are not opposed to refugees staying in Poland forever.
Despite the deterioration of the attitude towards Ukrainians, wage earners and refugees working in Poland are simply necessary for the development of the economy, because the country’s labor market experiences a constant shortage of personnel. 70% of refugees of working age are already fully or partially employed in Poland. If we take into account the various types of taxes and fees that Ukrainians paid to the country’s budget in 2023, the total amount of revenue will be from 15 to 20 billion zlotys (about 4.6 billion euros).