The study carried out by ‘Voice of Ukraine’ found that whereas in 2022, several months after Russia’s attack, 58% of Ukrainian refugees in Germany said that they wanted to return home, by 2024 this figure had dropped to 38%.
According to Panu Poutvaara, the director of the ifo Institute’s Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research, which took part in the study for ‘Voice of Ukraine’, the 2024 survey shows an increase in the portion of Ukrainians willing to settle outside of Ukraine: from 10% in 2022 to 26% in 2024.
The survey is periodically conducted among group Ukrainian refugees residing in several EU member states.
Poutvaara added that what is striking in the latest research is the difference between the attitudes of Ukrainians residing in Germany and in other EU states, e.g. Poland where around 44% say they would be willing to return to Ukraine.
According to Poutvaara, Ukrainians who choose to permanently settle outside of their homeland are more likely to pick Western European countries due to higher earnings and welfare benefits.
Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, which cited Poutvaara, reported: “Earlier research has already shown that Ukrainians appreciate the financial support that they receive in Germany. About 84% of them are satisfied with the support they receive in Germany. In Poland, it’s 54%.
The daily pointed out that integrating Ukrainians into the German labor market is slow to progress.
Although the latest data from February 2024 have not yet been officially published, as of April 2024, 192,000 out of 862,000 working-age Ukrainians had employment, Germany’s Federal Employment Agency reported.
They were most likely to work in construction, gastronomy, gardening, or facilities management. About a quarter of Ukrainians who had registered as unemployed had higher education.
According to the statistics of the Federal Office of Migration and Refugees, about 188,000 completed integration courses in 2022 and 2023. About 150,000 of them passed A2- or B2-level language exams certifying their ability to communicate in German on a basic level.
