Transnational Practices in Labour Market Performance of Ukrainians in Poland during the War

Agata A. Górny , University of Warsaw
Pawel Kaczmarczyk, University of Warsaw

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 resulted in massive outflow from Ukraine to European countries, mainly to Poland. By the end of 2023, the number of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland was still close to 1 million, while the total Ukrainian community in Poland could comprise more than 2 million people residing in Poland. The goal of the paper is to evaluate labour market performance of Ukrainian war refugees (labour market status, occupation, overqualification, job satisfaction) and its drivers referring to the capability-aspiration framework and considering forced migration specificities. In our analyses we pay special attention to the transnational practices of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland, as according to previous studies, 12-25% of those who work actually do so remotely in Ukraine. We seek to identify differences between those working in Poland and those working remotely in Ukraine in terms of labour market outcomes and their drivers. In doing so, we aim to fill an important gap in knowledge about the labour market performance of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland, and to draw attention to a novel context for both voluntary and involuntary migration offered by the possibility of international remote work. The data analysed derive from the online survey of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland (N=1034), conducted in February 2023. It is the second wave of the panel study “Between Ukraine and Poland” operated by the Centre of Migration Research and the Centre of Excellence in Social Sciences at the Warsaw University.

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 Presented in Session 14. Flash session Migrant Populations