Survey: only half of Ukrainian refugees are ready to return from Europe, given safety and work

Only half of the refugees are ready to return from Europe back to Ukraine / Photo from open sources

Only half of the Ukrainian refugees currently living in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic are willing to return home if conditions such as security, normal operation of critical infrastructure, availability of housing and the end of a full-scale invasion are met.

This is evidenced by the survey results of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), conducted in April.

Speaking about the conditions under which Ukrainians are ready to return home, relatively the most respondents mentioned the normal operation of critical infrastructure (34%) and security (34%).

This is followed by housing (26%) and ending a full-scale invasion (26%). 16% of respondents emphasized the possibility of finding a job, and 13% — the possibility of children attending school or kindergarten.

Sociologists analyzed the responses of Ukrainians to questions about their satisfaction with life abroad, the conditions for returning to Ukraine and their desire to obtain a passport of another country and came to the conclusion that it is more likely that those who at the same time do not have and have not submitted documents for the citizenship of another country may return, incompletely satisfied with the living conditions in the new country, express certain conditions for returning home.

According to this approach, exactly half of the respondents (50%) are those who are more likely to return to Ukraine. However, taking into account the respondents' answers to the following questions regarding interest in Ukraine, the stated assessment is rather an optimistic scenario in the current conditions,» says the KIIS message.

At the same time, sociologists emphasize that as long as large-scale hostilities continue (with an uncertain outcome), any estimates are tentative — accordingly, it is impossible to determine exactly how many Ukrainians will actually return.

«The results of the survey given in this press release show that a significant part of Ukrainian refugees are losing (or have already lost) their connection with Ukraine. Unfortunately, this was completely expected and in any case we would have lost some citizens. However, the question of what part of citizens can be returned and what is the point of doing this remains open,» said the executive director of KIIS, Anton Hrushetskyi.

According to him, on the one hand, the state, Ukrainian civil society and ordinary citizens should maintain contacts with citizens abroad, work with them, keep in touch and motivate them to return.

On the other hand, Ukrainians abroad should also be motivated to return and make relevant efforts to maintain ties with Ukraine.

The study lasted from April 20 to 26. 801 respondents (adult citizens aged 18 and older) who left Ukraine after February 24, 2022 and currently live in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic were interviewed using the online interview method using a computer.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the theoretical statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95) did not exceed 3.5%. At the same time, sociologists emphasize that the lack of reliable statistical data on the number and settlement of Ukrainian refugees, the lack of data on their sex-age structure, the rooting of individual Ukrainian refugees and, as a result, less interest in participating in Ukrainian surveys and the peculiarities of the online interview method affect the error and the actual error will be somewhat higher.

Despite this, KIIS believes that the obtained results still retain significant representativeness and allow analyzing the public attitudes of Ukrainian refugees.

We will remind you that the results of the survey conducted by the sociological agency Vox Populi indicate that more than a quarter of Ukrainian schoolchildren want to move abroad.