Page 31 - UKRRptSept21

who gained long term residency permits in Poland. Of the 500,000 foreigners with 3-year residency permits, 55% are Ukrainians, he said. About 70% of foreigners working in Poland are between the ages of 20 and 40.
Half of foreigners applying for residence permits in Poland are Ukrainian.
Of the half a million foreigners applying for resident permits in Poland, 277,000 are citizens of Ukraine, the representative of the Office for Foreigners of Poland Jakub Dudziak said on August 8, as cited by 112 International.
"Of the 500,000 foreigners who have a residence permit in Poland, issued to citizens of the European Union, the largest groups are citizens: Ukraine – 277,000 people, Belarus – 34,000, Germany – 20,000, Russia – 13,000, Vietnam – 11,000, India - 10.500, Georgia – 9,000, Italy - 8.500, China - 6.500, and Great Britain - 6.500," Dudzyak said.
He added that in the first half of this year, the number of foreigners with a residence permit increased by almost 42,000 people. In addition 112 Ukrainians applied for refugee status in Poland in the first half of this year.
There has been an exodus of Ukrainians thanks to low wages. Some two million have moved to Poland where wages are four-times higher than in Ukraine, contributing to a demographic disaster in the country that has seen its population levels fall to those of the 1950s.
Poland has welcomed the immigrants as its booming economy is suffering from a labour shortage. The Office for Foreigners of Poland has expedited the process of applying for temporary work visas for seasonal migrants and Polish firms have been advertising heavily in Ukraine for employees. However, migrant workers have typically gone to Poland for up to three months to work and then returned home. The rising numbers of Ukrainians applying for residency visas suggest that more are permanently moving to Poland that will add to the falling population numbers at home that will cause economic growth problems going forward.
Another three million Ukrainians live in Russia, with which the country is de facto at war with and Ukrainian immigrants to Russia were the biggest ethnic group entering Russia in the first half of this year.
The number of Ukrainian labour migrants in Poland has increased 2-3 times since 2014. Now, about 1.5mn Ukrainians work in Poland, 112 International reports.
Poland and Ukraine are the primary beneficiaries of the exodus of up to 20% of Belarus’ 70,000 IT workers over the last year, AFP reports in a story headlined “Belarus IT sector hit by exodus after post-vote crackdown.” Massive protests erupted last August after Alexander Lukashenko declared himself president after election widely seen as fraudulent. To stay in power, Lukashenko unleashed police violence against protesters. Looking ahead, Sergei Lavrinenko, a Minsk-based IT expert, predicts to AFP: “People will leave, slowly but steadily.”
31 UKRAINE Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com