European Poll: A third of Ukrainian refugees in the European Union want to return home
A new survey made by the European Union’s Fundamental Human Rights Agency (FRA), published on Tuesday showed that one in three Ukrainian refugees feels they are part of society in the host country, but the same number would like to return home.
Michael O’Flaherty, the agency’s director, said: “As the war continues, we need to put in place effective long-term measures that allow host communities and displaced people to cope with the upheaval caused by this war.”
A total of 14,685 Ukrainian refugees living in ten EU countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain) responded to the agency’s online survey between August and September 2022.
Although nearly half of them reported feeling depressed, 61% said they had been feeling optimistic about the future since arriving in the host country.
But with only a third of respondents finding paid jobs, 79% said they were experiencing financial hardship.
Language is the main obstacle to getting a job… A quarter of them say they don’t speak the language of the country they live in now, while 41% say they speak the language of the country where they live, but poorly.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February created the largest refugee crisis on the continent since World War II.
According to data from the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 8 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to another European country since the start of the war, and about 4.8 million have applied for a temporary protection permit in an EU country.
