Proud to Help

Ukrainians who have decided to stay here must be allowed to obtain permanent residence as soon as possible. The election campaign will not be conducive to introducing systemic solutions

Today, a year after the Russian aggression began, there are approximately 2 million Ukrainians living in Poland. However, a breakthrough in the migration processes taking place in Poland took place as early as 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea and sparked a conflict in the Donbas. Since then, Ukrainians seeking work began to arrive in Poland in large numbers. This was helped by Poles’ positive attitude towards labour immigration from culturally close countries, low unemployment and, above all, liberal laws allowing citizens of six Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia) to take up employment with virtually no restrictions.

It was Ukrainians who benefited the most. According to estimates of the Centre for Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, 1.3‒1.5 million Ukrainians were living in Poland before 24 February 2022. The vast majority of them were economic migrants (65 percent of them men) who had the right to temporary residence. In the first weeks after the start of the Russian invasion, around 100,000 of them returned home. In the following months, another 200,000 followed suit. This means that there are still more or less 1 million Ukrainians living in Poland who are not directly war refugees, although they generally cannot or do not want to return home due to the ongoing hostilities and fear for their lives. Meanwhile, their close ones, mainly women and children, have arrived since 24 February 2022. Family reunification took place. As a result, some of the family members (usually the mothers with children) have temporary protection rights while the others (usually the men) only have temporary residence rights, which entails many restrictions, including access to social assistance. This will have to change.