Too unsafe and too little perspective: one in three Ukrainian refugees does not want to return

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It’s been almost two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to flee. For many people, returning is unthinkable.

A survey by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Secretariat of State for Migration (SEM) and the market research agency Ipsos shows that a third of Ukrainians no longer want to return. The main obstacles to return are security concerns and the Russian occupation of the area where the refugees lived, the lack of access to functioning health care and the lack of work and livelihood opportunities.

Another third of those surveyed hope to return. 40 percent have not yet made a decision.

One in three people is unemployed

Currently, approximately 66,000 Ukrainians with protection status S live in Switzerland. At the time of the survey, 21 percent of Ukrainian refugees were employed. However, half of employees indicate that their current job is at a lower level than their previous job in Ukraine. About a third of respondents are unemployed. A quarter indicate that they have completed a vocational training course.

According to respondents, the biggest obstacle to integration into the labor market is the required knowledge of the national language. This is followed by a lack of employment opportunities commensurate with qualifications, insufficient training and insufficient recognition of qualifications.

Many with a university degree

In total, 69 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Switzerland have a university degree. 79 percent are women and children; most of them came to Switzerland shortly after the Russian invasion between February and April 2022.

According to the authors, the analysis is based on 1,125 surveys completed via an online questionnaire between March 30 and May 1, 2023. The data was collected at household level. (SDA/lha)

Source:Blick