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How many Ukrainians are in Poland today? The answer is difficult, if not impossible. Poland has certainly become a country of refuge for most Ukrainians who crossed the border of Ukraine, fleeing from Russian aggression. According to the data of the Border Guard, from February 24 to January 15, 2023, 9,206,000 refugees from Ukraine crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border (only in the last month, 803,000 Ukrainians entered Poland). Many of them, like my friend Oksana with her 18-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, went further west (they live in the UK now), and some spent a few months in Poland and returned to their homeland. Still, according to official sources, nearly 4 million Ukrainians live in Poland today (half of them arrived before February 24, 2022). This group comprises primarily women with children, followed by some older people but very few working-age men. This is due to the general military mobilisation in Ukraine, which prevents most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country (on the other hand, in the first weeks of the war, between 60-80 thousand Ukrainian men working in Poland before February 2022 decided to go to Ukraine to join the army or territorial defence). As a result, according to the latest registration data, men who are 18 years old or older make up only 7,8% of the refugees registered in Poland, while almost 50% of this group are women aged 18 years or older. The remaining groups are children.
On the buildings of offices, schools, kindergartens and hospitals, next to Polish flags, there are also yellow and blue Ukrainian flags. Some advertisements and announcements are written in Cyrillic at bus stops and on city billboards. No one is surprised that the Ukrainian language can be heard in trams, shops and playgrounds. In the state kindergarten my son attends, in September 2022, two groups for the youngest were created: one consists of only Ukrainian children, and the other is mixed (14 Polish children, 6 Ukrainian). Eleven months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which triggered the most significant wave of spontaneous aid in the history of modern Poland, sociological research shows that Poles no longer support Ukrainians financially and materially as they did early in the war. Yet, at the same time, this does not affect their overall moral support for the Ukrainians in their war against Putin. So how does all this reflect on the Ukrainians taking refuge in Poland?
From great gratitude to great disappointments: Ukrainian women talk about their experiences in Poland
Alina is 35 and lives with her family in a house-container in a village near Łuków in south-eastern Poland. At 35 square meters, there is a bathroom, a bunk bed for children, and a sofa bed. Next to it, there are boxes with clothes. Alina came from the Kharkiv region. She shows photos and videos on her phone. In one of them, the whole family is sitting in the basement. Dressed in jackets, and hats, covered with blankets, they listen to the noise of planes bombing Kharkiv. Jars of pickled cucumbers and apricot compote tremble on the wooden shelves. One day, a nearby school, where a field kitchen was set up, and some of Alina's friends died. That’s when she decided to run away.
"I'm glad that I left with my whole family. Many women came only with their children and couldn't make it here. So they had to go back. We are lucky, my husband (he was able to leave Ukraine because we have a child with cerebral palsy) got a job as a driver, but it is difficult to rent an apartment," complains Alina.
Finding an apartment for rent is extremely difficult, especially in large cities. At the beginning of the Russian invasion, people welcomed refugees from Ukraine in their own homes - more than 6% of adult Poles gave a room, a bed or an apartment to those seeking shelter. Those who decided to do so could count on state support (EUR 9 per person per day), but it was valid only for 120 days.
An estimated 520,000 Ukrainians benefited from the shelter provided by Polish families. Yulia was among them. She came to Poland from the vicinity of Donetsk. She was running from bombs with her two daughters, the elder already an adult and the younger, a teenage girl. Soon they had to take care of their depressed mother. Yulia stopped sleeping at night, did not eat, and cried a lot. A visit to a psychiatrist, who provides free services to refugees, and antidepressants helped her. Yulia and her daughters received their first apartment free of charge from the Poles, but they knew they could stay there for three months. Yulia's younger daughter was admitted to a private high school (the parents of the other students paid tuition fees). The older one found a job in a restaurant. She worked a month as a waitress and was fired the day before payday. She didn't see a penny. Yulia got a job in a bakery: hard shift work and low payment. "The most difficult moment came when we had to take care of ourselves: find an apartment, pay the rent, and pay the bills out of pocket. There were times when I thought we wouldn't make it. But we understood that we had to become self-sufficient. We had no grudge against the Poles. After all, no one could support us for months," says Yulia.
Although her daughter was swindled, Yulia did not change her opinion about Poles. "Mom calls our family in Ukraine every day and tells everyone about the support we received from Poles. Both the material and the symbolic support. All those Ukrainian flags hung in people's houses windows, in shop windows, on buildings are great happiness and great encouragement for us", says Katerina, Yulia's daughter.
Many conversations with Ukrainians still end in tears and words like: "We will never forget the support that Poles gave us", "If it wasn't for Poles, I don't know what would have happened to us", "Thanks to Poles my children can live normally". But other stories also bring them to tears. The mother of my son's friend from kindergarten recently complained that a woman at the bus stop called her a Nazi and accused Ukrainians of taking jobs from Poles. She summed up the story with the statement that "Poles do not fully understand what war is; they know it only from television." She told me she hadn't turned off the bomb alert notifications on her phone to this day. When she hears that her town near Kyiv is under fire, she immediately calls her parents. For now, she has no plans to return. She has a job, her children speak Polish better and better, they have Polish friends.
Not every story of Ukrainian refugees in Poland ends well. Many could not find a place in the labour market or housing. They decided to return to Ukraine. Many were discouraged by the unfavourable attitude of Poles, and some were deceived. There are forums on the Internet where Ukrainian refugees warn each other against dishonest employers or people offering to rent an old, neglected, unfurnished apartment for an exorbitant price. There are a lot of posts.
Svetlana met dishonest Poles. She came to Poland from eastern Ukraine. A Polish family promised her a job as domestic help. Her employment was supposed to be "little work", but it turned out to be hard physical work picking fruit. When she fell ill, no one wanted to call a doctor. She received only part of the previously agreed salary, and eventually, she ran away. A similar story happened in one of the towns in southern Poland. The guest house owner promised the refugees "accommodation and good wages" but crammed the women and children into a few small rooms. He made them work from dawn to dusk, and paid pennies.
The Ukrainian refugees are behind a boom of small businesses in Poland
Some Poles cannot imagine that "their Ukrainian women" – as they call the refugee women whom they helped in the initial phase of the war – will one day return home. This is the case of Dorota, who spontaneously supported a whole group of Ukrainian women. She gave them her house in the suburbs of Wrocław (and moved to a smaller apartment in the city centre), and today she is a co-owner of a thriving beauty salon. "I realize that my story is a success story," says Olga, who is among the women supported by Dorota. Olga and her daughter and nephew came to Poland in the first days of the war when bombs fell on her hometown of Kryvyi Rih. She found a place in Dorota's house. They took one room. "It reminded me of the Soviet times when we lived in a communal apartment and shared a bathroom and a kitchen with strangers. But the help that was given to us was invaluable," says Olga.
One day, in a conversation with Olga, Dorota mentioned that she had a large premise in the very centre of the city. The place was rarely used as a warehouse. Olga, a beautician by profession, suggested: "Great, we will open a hair and beauty salon there." The renovation took a month. Dorota bought the necessary equipment. The salon prospers; only Ukrainian women work in it. They plan to open a second location.
Now Olga can’t complain about the lack of money. She managed to rent an apartment in Wrocław, and now her children have a separate room. They can afford small pleasures, such as a boat trip on the river or a weekend trip out of town. "I thank fate for putting Dorota on my path," says Olga. And she laughs that a beauty salon in Polish is called "salon urody", and "urod" in Ukrainian means a "monster". "The most important thing is that the business worked out, and now I can help other Ukrainian women I employ," says Olga.
Near my house, at a distance of 300 meters, three beauty and hair salons were opened in the last year, all founded and run by Ukrainian women. They are open from the morning until late in the evening, seven days a week, including holidays. Every time I pass by, I see that there are a lot of customers inside. Above the entrance to one of them hangs a pink neon sign with the words "Fucking Amazing".
The report of the Polish Economic Institute shows that enterprises founded by Ukrainians accounted for 45% of all new foreign companies that started operations in Poland last year. From January to September 2022, Ukrainian citizens registered 10,200 one-person enterprises and 3,600 companies with Ukrainian capital. In September last year, their share in the number of new companies in Poland increased to 8.5%. For comparison, before the outbreak of the war, the percentage of new Ukrainian enterprises was below 1%.
Data provided by the Polish government show that 420,000 people have found employment - mainly in IT, retail and construction. The report indicates that women register 41% of new one-person businesses founded by Ukrainians. Over 50% of companies that registered in Poland did so to continue their activities in Ukraine. On the other hand, about two-thirds of them stated that they intended to remain in the Polish market, regardless of the war's outcome.
“They have time to walk around shopping malls”. Polish trolls are targeting refugees and the government’s support for them
If access to employment is an essential factor influencing refugees’ decisions to remain in host countries or return to Ukraine, many other factors are also involved. Among them, access to financial support as well as housing, education, childcare and other forms of aid play an equally important part. Unfortunately, refugees in Poland do not receive any direct financial support from the Polish government apart from a one-time 300 PLN (approx. 65 EUR) benefit. However, in light of The Act on Support for the Ukrainian Nationals in Connection with the Military Conflict in Ukraine (12.03.22), the refugees gain free access to childcare, education, health services and, most importantly, to social benefits available to Polish nationals. Among these, 500+ child benefit (105 EUR per child per month) plays the most crucial role for women with children up to 18 years old.
According to the Polish government, the 500+ benefit covers nearly 330,000 children, and 65,000 families receive other benefits to support their children. The refugees are entitled to this financial support as long as they live in Poland.
Of course, on the Internet, you can find a lot of negative opinions about Ukrainian refugees. "They have already received a Polish ID, and now they are also getting 500+", "They have time to walk around shopping malls. I'm asking, what are they buying for?", "Let's not delude ourselves; a Polish school is now a Ukrainian school, a disaster" – these are a few anonymous entries. Sociologists explain that some Poles might have forgotten about the refugees who came to our country crammed in trains with several bundles in their hands. Today we are looking at "rich Ukrainians" who drive expensive cars and wear branded clothes. But if you look at the statistics, only a third of Ukrainian children, i.e. only 200,000, went to Polish schools; 400,000 students benefit from Ukrainian remote education. "It's easier that way. I don't know if I'll still have a job here in a month. We may have to move out. What about the school, then? Besides, I don't want my son to lose touch with his friends, language and Ukrainian culture," Oksana explained a few months ago. Today she lives in the UK, and her son attends an English school.
Support, adaptation and integration: regardless of the war's outcome, Poland will become a bi-national country
"Regardless of the war's outcome, Poland will become a bi-national country. The outbreak of war in Ukraine has unleashed migration potential on a scale not seen since World War II. We have to face the challenges and take advantage of this opportunity," according to the Hospitable Poland 2022+ report prepared by the WiseEuropa Foundation. It predicts that 3 million forced refugees from Ukraine may settle permanently in Poland, and people should stop thinking in terms of providing temporary assistance or facilitating adaptation of Ukrainians in Poland and instead focus on integration policy.
The large number of Ukrainians who declare permanent residence shows that Poland is a country close to them in terms of culture, which is certainly also related to the ease of learning Polish, which for Ukrainians is much easier than Romanian or German.
The refugees are safe, but their loved ones are still being killed
Anna came to Poland from Kharkiv. She ended up in a free-of-charge room in Zamość in eastern Poland (about 60 km from the Ukrainian border). She came with four children and had only one small bag with her. Earlier, her brother had asked her to take his son with her because he would be safe in Poland. She hesitated but finally refused. She was afraid she would not be able to feed her own children in a foreign land. A few weeks later, news came that shrapnel had hit her brother's son, and the boy died. Since then, Anna has closed herself off; she can't sleep, she calls the boy at night.
Olexandra is in Poland only with her son. In Ukraine, she worked in a pharmacy, but here she cannot take a job because she has to take care of the child.
"I came with one bag. We got everything from the Poles, we don't lack anything," she says. "Maybe just a psychologist. My son started stuttering after leaving home. Every day he mentions his father and tries to explain to himself that he can't go home yet." When I ask what she misses the most, she replies after a moment of silence: "If I could turn back time, I would pay more attention to people. The fact that you can talk to your friends, hug them. Standing with my neighbours outside for a while in peace now seems priceless to me. House, car, TV… Today they are here, and tomorrow there is no trace of them. I think Poles, who have opened their hearts and homes to us, cannot understand what it means."
