Most of the people who fled to the country from Ukraine work in Poland – but not all of them at the level of their actual qualifications. What is different in Poland than in Germany?
With her eye-catching red glasses and pink plush coat, Irina Lisowska does not fit the typical image of a Warsaw taxi driver. Her story, however, is not unusual in this professional group. Irina fled Ukraine to Poland with her family in August 2022. Her husband works from Warsaw as a programmer for a Ukrainian company. And she drives a taxi. The 49-year-old is a doctor and worked as a pediatrician in Ukraine. And that’s what she wants here in Poland, where doctors are needed. But recognition of her degree is still a long time coming.
But it’s not possible to not work at all because the rent, life in Warsaw is too expensive and the financial support from the state is too low. She receives the equivalent of 372 euros in child benefit per month for her two 13- and 15-year-old children. Ukrainians in Poland have free access to the healthcare system. But beyond that there is hardly any help.
Irina’s Ukrainian acquaintances in Poland all work, she says. That is completely normal. In Poland, a one-off payment of the equivalent of 66 euros and child benefit of 185 euros per month can be paid upon request; In addition, there is no longer any social assistance.
Hardly any government support in Poland
The low financial support from the state is one reason why the employment rate among Ukrainians in Poland is the highest in the EU at 65 percent, says Łukasz Błaszczak from the Polish Economic Institute. Compared to Germany, where it is now 20 percent, that is an enormous amount. “They are forced to go to work.” Rents in large cities have skyrocketed, especially due to high demand from Ukrainians since Russia began its attack on their homeland. The government subsidies would not be enough.
But Błaszczak also sees other reasons for the high proportion of Ukrainian workers in Poland. The country is Ukraine’s direct neighbor and quickly switched to integration. This was possible, also because a number of Ukrainians had already found work in Poland before the war. Ukrainian workers on the Polish labor market were simply nothing new. “If you come to a place where you already have contacts who can offer you some support, who know their stuff, then it’s easier to navigate the job market.”
In addition, the language barrier is lower than in Germany, for example. Ukrainian and Polish are similar. “We see in studies what role language plays. Among Ukrainians who speak Polish, 80 percent are employed. Among those who don’t speak it, only 50 percent are,” says Łukasz Błaszczak.
Polish economy is growing
In addition, there is a need for workers in many sectors. Unlike Germany, Poland’s economy is growing above average compared to the EU. GDP growth of 2.7 percent is expected this year, compared to just 0.2 percent in Germany.
However, a study by the EWL Foundation, an organization that places Ukrainian workers in the Polish labor market, found that only 35 percent of Ukrainians in Poland held a position appropriate to their qualifications, with again a large difference between migrants before and after War exists. Of those who were in Poland before the war, 42 percent said they worked according to their skills, compared to only 23 percent of migrants who arrived after the war began. There is a lot of catching up to do in the recognition of foreign qualifications so that the potential of the often well-trained workforce can be better utilized.
Irina Lisowska from Chernivtsi in the Ukraine also wants to finally work as a doctor again. Your chances are good, even if the procedure is lengthy. She says she’s not ashamed of driving a taxi. She socializes with people and improves her Polish.
She doesn’t want to go to Germany because she has family connections here in Warsaw. She doesn’t just see the much better financial support there as positive: “I think that the higher government subsidies in countries like Norway or Germany lead to people refusing to take up work.” She doesn’t want to owe anyone anything. She wants to provide for herself and her family, whether as a doctor or a taxi driver. She doesn’t want to go back to Ukraine.
More on this topic today at 6 p.m. in the report from Berlin in the First.