President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to return Ukrainians home, but the countries that received them are in no hurry to do so, as they have benefited from new workers.
As informs Bloomberg, Zelenskyy wants Ukrainian refugees to return home to support economic recovery and fight against Russia. At the same time, many countries of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, are experiencing labor shortages, so they do not want to lose Ukrainian workers.
At the beginning of the war, about 17 million Ukrainians, i.e. more than a third of the pre-war population, were forced to leave their homes. According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 6 million of them remain abroad.
The National Bank of Ukraine predicts that another 400,000 people may leave the country this year due to difficulties associated with power outages and threats to the energy infrastructure.
Zelensky is trying to convince international partners to help bring home more men of draft age, raising the issue during bilateral meetings. However, politicians from Poland to Hungary refuse to send refugees back while the war continues.
In addition, the economic factor is another important reason why these countries seek to retain Ukrainian workers. About 950,000 more refugees were accepted in Poland, where many Ukrainians lived before the war. Their contribution to the country’s GDP last year was between 0.7 and 1.1%, according to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The report notes that Ukrainian refugees in Poland are mostly self-sufficient: 80% of their income comes from work, as they have quickly integrated into the labor market.
In the Czech Republic, during the first quarter, Ukrainian refugees paid almost twice as much in taxes as they received in social benefits, according to data from the Ministry of Labor.
