in Poland, the reception of Ukrainian refugees at the center of European debates

Around 900,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Poland since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Warsaw has facilitated their access to work, but also to health and the education system. The question of their integration into Polish society comes into the debate a few days before the election.

Poland is the country which, with Germany, hosts the largest number of Ukrainian refugees: 900,000 people, according to the latest figures. These refugees are the vast majority of women with children and elderly people, who left Ukraine as soon as the war broke out in February 2022. Poland opened its arms to them. Two years later, have they managed to integrate? In any case, the question is stirring the debate in the run-up to the European elections.

On the ground floor of the Ukrainian House in Warsaw, the meeting room is used for different workshops depending on the day of the week: conversation in the Polish language, theater or drawing classes… Around ten women are taking part, including Anastasia, 36 years old. She comes from Vinnytsia, in western Ukraine. Anastasia, who has a background in economics, moved to the Polish capital two years ago where she works as a switchboard operator. “Many of us want to return to our normal lives, but we also understand that the war will not end tomorrow, she laments. So, you have to get by, raise your children, earn money, feed yourself, because the war also taught us that we have to live here and now.”

The help provided by the Ukrainian House is valuable. Created in 2014, this civil society organization, which had only around twenty employees, saw its numbers increase as refugees arrived to support them in their job search. “A lot of Ukrainians have already found work, and therefore they pay taxessays Valeriia Shakhunova, member of the Ukrainian House team. And we also have statistics that a lot of Ukrainians have already started doing business here, and that is very important.”

“They’re not sitting around doing nothing, they’re doing something, they’re providing help because usually if you open your business here and you’re Ukrainian, you’ll hire Ukrainians.”

Valeriia Shakhunova, from the Ukrainian House

at franceinfo

Restaurants, canteens, grocery stores, buildings, public works, services… Ukrainians do not need a work permit in Poland. They also have access to the health system and the school system under the same conditions as the Poles. Facilities that come at a cost: public aid to Ukrainian refugees is equivalent to 2.4% of Polish GDP. A much higher proportion than in other countries which have massively welcomed Ukrainians, such as the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

The far right uses it as a political argument. Last February, during a debate in the Diet, the lower house of the Polish parliament, a deputy from the Konfederacja party took on the ruling coalition led by Donald Tusk. “You want Ukrainians in Poland to enjoy social privileges, so you want the Polish nation to suffer the financial consequences of the policy which, according to Konfederacja, is not in the Polish national interest.”

If the unemployment rate is historically low in Poland, inflation is flirting with 6%. Rent prices are soaring in an already tight real estate market in big cities like Warsaw. Ukrainians are forced to share their accommodation with several people, when they find one.

“When a person calls on the phone with an accent for a rental offer, that person is immediately told: ‘We don’t rent to foreigners’, or that the offer is no longer current, says Oleksandr Pestrykov, who handles advocacy at the Ukrainian House. But when our Polish colleague calls the same number, it turns out that the apartment is available for rental and that the price is negotiable. A marginal discrimination but which marks a change in mentalities. 60% of Poles remain in solidarity with their Ukrainian brothers. But this percentage is much lower than two years ago, when the war broke out.

A subject is debated in the country: that of the schooling of Ukrainian children. Until now, Poland allowed Ukrainian children to follow their school program remotely. But that will change soon. Only half of the 300,000 Ukrainian children living in Poland are enrolled in Polish schools, which worries the authorities. They have therefore decided to apply a measure from July: the family allowance of 800 zlotys (the equivalent of 190 euros) will now be conditional, as explained by Jedrzej Witkowski, from the Center for Citizen Education, a Polish NGO specializing in education.

“Only parents who send their children to Polish schools will receive the financial support that every family receives for each childhe describes. And this is controversial. But this will be the only restrictive measure for this compulsory education. I think it’s an effective tool. I think that if we do nothing, it will be a lost generation. These children are excluded from the system. They do not master the Polish language, because they have not really had the opportunity to learn it. They will not have the opportunity to find a job they aspire to, and they may also be marginalized in society.” Normalizing the presence of Ukrainian children in Poland, avoiding the rise of social tensions, so many challenges that the government of Donald Tusk must respond to today.