Public figures are looking for a way home for Ukrainian refugees

According to the Institute of Demography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, about 5  million people have fled abroad because of the war. This figure does not include those who ended up in  Russia. One-third of these people are men. Boys under the age of 18 make up 17%. And the same percentage of the total number of Ukrainian refugees are men of military age. Only 5% or even less are  men of retirement age. Bloomberg Economics, citing economist Oleksandr Isakov, notes that if none of  the 2.8 million women of working age can be persuaded to return, it will cost Ukraine 10% of its annual pre-war gross domestic product. That’s up to $20 billion a year.

Despite the continuation of the war, civil society organizations are already beginning to raise the issue of  Ukrainians returning home. On August 29, 2023, the Golda Meir Institute for Civil Society  Development, together with the Israeli Medical Mission and the Kundiev Institute of Occupational  Medicine of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, held a roundtable discussion on «The Way Home: How Can the Country Bring Ukrainians Back?»

Even before the full-scale war, public figures were promoting bills that would improve the situation in  the labor market, both domestically and for our fellow citizens abroad. To make it legal and accessible.  During the roundtable, Vasyl Voskoboynyk, President of the All-Ukrainian Association of International Employment Companies, spoke about the recently adopted bill on the protection of the rights of  Ukrainians employed abroad. This law has been in the works for seven years, and starting in October,  the system of licensing intermediary activities for the employment of people abroad will be canceled. The  responsibility of market participants has also been strengthened and it is forbidden to take money  from Ukrainians for employment abroad.

«The longer the war lasts, the fewer people will return. The experience of the war in Yugoslavia  shows that 30% of those who went abroad returned. There are no grounds to say that we will have rapid  economic growth after the war. In the next five or 10 years, we will be the poorest country in Europe.  30% of the economy has been destroyed. That is why I expect that after the end of hostilities, the  percentage of labor migration will have to be added to those people who will not return to Ukraine  because we will face a real increase in utility prices, we will face a drop in living standards, and people  will need to go abroad to earn money until factories are rebuilt in Ukraine», – Voskoboynik said.

According to Oleksandra Reshmedilova, a political scientist with, a PhD in philosophy, we need to raise  the question of how not to lose even more Ukrainians. And to keep Ukrainians inside the country, we  need to consider the problems of internally displaced persons who are forced to migrate constantly, because there are no completely safe regions in Ukraine. Many of them have already left their comfort  zone several times, perhaps without ever having been in that comfort zone. Therefore, they also need to  be dealt with at the state level in order to keep them in their homeland.

It is currently impossible to say for sure how many Ukrainians are abroad. This was stated by Oleksiy  Pozniak, PhD in Economics, Head of the Migration Research Sector at the Ptukha Institute for  Demography and Social Studies.

«Of course, we can appeal to the figure of 6.3 million citizens  given by the UN Refugee Commission, based on data from different countries. 11% of our citizens are in  Russia. But experts do not trust this figure, it can vary significantly. According to the Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the difference between those who left and returned to Ukraine recently is 1.7 million  eople. Oleksiy Pozniak noted that mass departures from Ukraine were recorded in the first three months  f Russia’s full-scale invasion, and after that, there were many so-called «pendulum rips», – when a person went abroad several times a year and then returned. But statistics count each  uch trip as a departure/return of an individual.

«Today, there is a problem that there is an acute shortage of personnel among employers, on the  other hand, a significant number of internally displaced persons cannot find a job due to professional  mismatch. Given these challenges, training and retraining to improve skills is a priority. But given the fact that this is an adult population, training should be conducted in a short time», – said Valentyna  Rybalko, director of the Donetsk Regional Employment Center, during the discussion.

During the roundtable, it became known that a new option for getting a job had appeared – vouchers.  They are aimed at helping internally displaced persons, as well as those over 45 years old and people  with special needs, and combatants. Today, there are 123 professions and specialties. To get a voucher,  you need to fill out a questionnaire on the website of the State Employment Service and wait for the  review.

«Not only government agencies provide employment assistance. For example, a hub has been created for  this purpose, which works for 60 countries. Not only Ukrainians, but anyone can help each other  find jobs there. Based on this hub, a social program has recently been launched to help internally  displaced persons, veterans, and widows with children realize themselves in a new way. Anastasiia  Shevchenko, General Manager of Lugera Ukraine», – spoke about this.

«No one says that there are  more than 8 million internally displaced persons. This is a very large  number of people concentrated in specific regions where there is not enough work for them. We have a  big gap – the vacancies for people who are needed do not match those who are unemployed. Every day we receive hundreds of resumes, I see how many people are unemployed, and the needs from the market  that come to us do not match the professional skills and experience available. 35-40% of all  positions are now related to sales. There is a huge demand for chief accountants, all other accountants,  and financial specialists because many of them have left. And now employers are competing for people.  It is virtually impossible to find a free person in these professions», – said Anastasia Shevchenko.

Initiatives are already in place in different regions of Ukraine to help IDPs learn a new profession and  find themselves again. For example, in Kyiv, there are three times more vacancies than registered  unemployed people. This was reported by Tetyana Govorun, head of the employment policy  implementation department of the Kyiv City Employment Center. According to her, employers are  currently in need of employees in the trade sector, unskilled workers, and heavy physical labor.

«Before deciding how we will bring Ukrainians back, we need to decide how to incentivize  them. We need to take into account that it is one thing when a person stays in Europe for six  months or a year, but after two years, there is already a clear assimilation there. There, they  already stimulate our citizens with various payments. Therefore, first of all, the state must  build a policy on the return of citizens. It is not too late to do so. But the sooner the state  starts doing this, the more effective these steps will be. People need to know where they are going to return to. They need guarantees», –  said Ruslan Svitly, director of the Department  of Social Policy at the Kyiv City State Administration.

Eliezer Feldman, founder of the Golda Meir Institute for Civil Society Development, head of the Israeli  Medical Mission in Ukraine, a public figure, noted that the state may not be able to create favorable  conditions for the return of citizens on its own. However, the state is now required to create conditions  for other institutions to create such conditions.

«The question now is whether the state really wants its citizens to return. Ukraine should study the  example of other countries that are doing this. The best example is Israel, which has returned to its  territory more people than were born there», – Feldman said during the roundtable.

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