Contrary to political rhetoric, Ukrainian refugees boosting Poland's economy

Japan Times

07-07-2025

With a wrench in hand, Ukrainian refugee Oleksandr Belyba is busy repairing a van in a garage in the Polish capital.
The 33-year-old is devoted to his work, and wants to stay in Poland, which benefits economically from refugees but where anti-migrant sentiment is rising.
"It's impossible not to work in Poland, and Ukrainians are people that can't just sit idle," said Belyba, who spent 13 months on the front line fighting off the Russian invasion, and arrived in Poland half a year ago to work in a repair shop owned by a childhood friend from Dnipro.
After the beginning of the war in 2022, Poland opened its borders to millions of refugees and offered them various benefits.
Today, most of these benefits are no longer in force, and Ukrainians have the same rights and obligations as Poles. Ukrainian workers and students get access to free health care and education.
There are approximately 1.5 million Ukrainians living in Poland, a million of whom are considered refugees and are mostly women and children.
Olesia Hryhorash, a tailor working in a dry-cleaning service in a shopping mall in Warsaw, poses for a picture at her sewing machine on June 26. |
AFP-JIJI
Their presence is highly beneficial to Poland's growing economy, according to a recently published report.
Last year, Ukrainian refugees "generated 2.7% of Poland's gross domestic product (GDP)," said the report by Deloitte and UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency.
This gain would be "lost" if refugees were to disappear, the report said.
Furthermore, refugees "increase the labour supply as both workers and entrepreneurs and expand demand as consumers," Deloitte indicated, underlining that 69% of Ukrainian refugees in Poland work.
'Poles first'
The report goes against numerous statements made by Polish nationalist and far-right politicians, who accuse Ukrainians of "taking advantage of Poland."
During the recent electoral campaign, the nationalist president-elect Karol Nawrocki had a slogan: "Poland first, Poles first."
He called for social benefits to go "above all to Poles" and said they should even "have priority" in queues at the doctor's office.
Far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen accused the Ukrainians of treating Poles like "suckers" who are being duped into contributing to their presence in Poland.
However, welfare benefits "are not enough to live comfortably in Poland," said Oleh Yarovyi, owner of the Dobro Dobro coffee chain in Warsaw, where 95% of employees are Ukrainian.
"Life in Poland isn't very cheap, and to live normally, refugees often need extra work," he said.
Olesia Hryhorash, a dry-cleaning service employee in a shopping mall, agreed.
"All my friends are working — some even work two jobs," said the 25-year-old, who arrived in Poland on holiday just before the Russian invasion.
Vitalii Vizinskyi, a Ukrainian construction company owner, poses for a picture in the garden of a Warsaw embassy where his employees work on laying paving stones on June 24. |
AFP-JIJI
According to the UNHCR report, Ukrainians in Poland work primarily in lower-income positions, and their arrival did not result in a surge in the unemployment rate, which remains at around 5%.
"The economy has benefited from a larger pool of talent, enabling deeper specialization and increased productivity growth," it said.
'Money from Poland'
"I didn't take any money from Poland. Everything I have here I earn with my own hands," said Vitalii Vizinskyi, 47, a construction company owner from western Ukraine. "And of course, I pay taxes here," he said.
Behind him, his workers — Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles — were busy laying paving stones in the garden of a Warsaw embassy.
Poland has "simplified the registration of Ukrainian businesses, access to education and employment," said Kateryna Glazkova, executive director of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, who lives between Kyiv and Warsaw, where her family has settled.
The Polish Economic Institute estimates that Ukrainians set up nearly one in 10 microbusinesses in Poland, mainly in construction and services.
A report by the Polish state bank BGK found that tax and social security contributions from Ukrainian migrants totaled around 15.1 billion zlotys (€3.5 billion), while child allowances amounted to around 2.8 billion zlotys.
"Because of taxes and contributions to the Polish budget, Ukrainians have returned much more than they received in aid," Glazkova said.