Ukrainian officials fear those who have fled the country are being too readily welcomed and rapidly integrated, lowering the likelihood they will ever return to the war-torn country to assist its reconstruction.
“What really troubles me is that in Germany, they are not just creating conditions for our women with children to stay, but they are establishing specialized recruiting agencies to employ Ukrainian women and men. They understand that we possess certain skills and are inclined towards work,” fretted Lana Zerkal, advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s energy ministry.
“Even now, Ukrainians have had their citizenship acquisition period halved. [The Germans] understand that we are a source of the workforce. This worries me because we are currently losing our workforce,” she explained, adding: “In a few years, they will start receiving citizenship, and they won’t return here if there are no schools, no opportunities to support their families, and no prospects.”
The United Nations (UN) estimates some 5,872,700 Ukrainians are in other European countries, including over a million in Germany, with a further 358,300 living beyond Europe.
This represents a huge share of the country’s population, which had fallen to an estimated 37.6 million by the beginning of 2022 – including millions of people in the Crimea and other territories under Russian control, who are of little or no economic use to the Ukrainian government.