More than two in five Ukrainian adults in Ireland with temporary protection status are working, according to the Ukrainian Action in Ireland group.
Around 100,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge in Ireland in the two years since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The vast majority of those that are not working would like to be, according to the survey of 8,000 people, which UAI hope will help shape government policy.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, one of the Directors of UAI, Anatoliy Prymakov, said this third survey focused on integration and employment.
“We are seeing that there’s a big increase in people working,” Mr Prymakov said.
“If there were only 29% working last year, there’s now 43% working and then 43% more would like to work.
“So, they’re actively looking for work. What we’re finding though, is that there are still some barriers to employment.
“For example, we are finding that the vast majority of Ukrainians that are here are an educated workforce with a lot of experience in their field, for example, on average 12 years in their field.
“However, they’re finding it hard to work for various reasons.”
Respondents highlighted English as a big issue, Mr Prymakov said.
“We find it that if people don’t speak English, then only a fifth of that segment can find work,” he said.
“And it is generally not in their field. In fact, the majority are not working in their field.
“And then we find that the employment increases dramatically once we see people actually speaking the language and you can also see that people themselves realise that and that the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainians are trying to learn the language.
“Over 90% are trying to learn the language because they themselves see that that is key to employment.
“And overall, there’s a lot of people employed in part-time and seasonal work and work that is not related to their fields.
“And you can see that that is directly related to the areas that they’re in. The hospitality sector dominates in the employment and obviously it makes sense, seeing that a lot of them will be living in State provided accommodations like hotels.”
Rural Ireland
Mr Prymakov added that a lot of people that have come here come from metropolitan areas and they find it very hard to live in rural Ireland and find employment there.
“The lack of transportation to and from work, as well as childcare, – they would be some of the top reasons”, he said.
“What we’re seeing in this picture is a highly educated mass of people that overwhelmingly would like to work.”
He added that 43% would like to work and they are trying to determine what the barriers are preventing them from working.
Mr Prymakov said that they want to help address those issues to get people into employment and help them work so that they can contribute to society “and that is super important because what we’re seeing is an increase in people that would like to remain in Ireland long term”.
“We figure [that] was around 40% last year, that is now up to 55%,” he said.
“So that is a significant increase. And it is important that we help those people be productive members of society in the longer term if they intend to stay here.”
