Lost in Definition – Differences and Similarities between War Refugees from Ukraine and Pre-2022 Ukrainian Immigrants in Poland

Pawel A. Strzelecki , SGH Warsaw School of Economics

The outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022 has led to a situation where two populations of immigrants from Ukraine live on Polish territory at the same time. The paper aims to present the differences and similarities between war refugees who came to Poland from Ukraine after February 2022 and earlier immigrants who mainly followed economic reasons in their decision to migrate. This paper uses the data from the Polish public system of registration of war refugees (PESEL-UKR) and the survey data carried out by the National Bank of Poland. The surveys were carried out in 2020 (before COVID-19 and full-scale war, n=2981), May 2022 (war refugees, n=3165) and November 2022 (pre-war immigrants and war refugees, n=3791). The comparison of the earlier immigrants to war refugees from Ukraine shows that war refugees in May 2022 were mainly well-educated women, frequently with children and without previous experiences with the migration to Poland. Almost half of the war refugees initially declared that they did not speak Polish. Despite their difficult situation, most war refugees from Ukraine sought to become economically independent and actively searched for work: their employment rate in May amounted to 28%, while 65% in November 2022. Pre-war migrants and refugees differ in plans to return to their home country. The war turned temporary pre-war migrants into persons who frequently declared the plan to stay in Poland permanently (55%). War refugees remained mainly undecided (49%) or declared will to return to Ukraine shortly.

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 Presented in Session 17. Refugees