Half of displaced Ukrainians would return home from Europe - poll
Only half of the Ukrainian refugees in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic are ready to return home if the conditions are right.
This is evidenced by a survey run by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology at the end of April, reports Ukrinform.
The majority of respondents are ready to return if critical infrastructure operates normally (34%) and if it is safe in the country (34%).
Another 26% noted the accommodation issue and the end of a full-scale war as conditions for their return.
Fewer respondents talked about the possibility of finding a job (16%) and conditions for children to attend school/kindergarten (13%).
Most of the displaced Ukrainians surveyed (66%) are rather or completely satisfied with their current living conditions in their host country. Of them, 28% are completely satisfied, 38% are rather satisfied, and the rest are dissatisfied.
Some 7% claim they already hold citizenship of another state. Another 12% have applied and are now awaiting a decision. Also, 34% have not applied are have no intention to do so.
At the same time, almost half of the respondents - 45% - would generally like to obtain citizenship of another country, although they have not applied yet.
Sociologists analyzed answers to questions about how satisfied people are with their life abroad, their citizenship status, and desired conditions for returning home to estimate the share of Ukrainian refugees who will eventually come back to their homeland.
Specialists based their findings on the fact that people who did not hold or never applied for another country’s citizenship, who are not completely satisfied with the living conditions in their host country, and who put forward certain conditions for returning to Ukraine (and refrain from answering "I plan to stay for a long time") are more likely to return.
According to this approach, exactly half of the respondents (50%) are those who are more likely to return to Ukraine. However, given the respondents' answers to the following questions regarding interest in Ukraine, the indicated assessment is rather an optimistic scenario in the current conditions," the Institute noted.
Slightly more than half of the interviewed refugees - 56% - said they follow the developments in Ukraine: 42% of them use Ukrainian sources to this end while the rest rely exclusively on foreign media.
Also, 34% of respondents directly stated that they are not interested in the Ukraine coverage, and 11% answered that it is "difficult for them to answer" (this, in particular, is a form of avoiding socially disapproved behavior).
Some 31% of respondents would rather or definitely vote in parliamentary elections in Ukraine if they were announced (12% said “definitely”). Another 33% answered "it's hard to say for sure, 50/50". The rest would rather or definitely not vote.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, citing Eurostat, 4.2 million people who fled from Ukraine due to the full-scale invasion held the status of temporary protection in EU countries as of late March.
Photo: Voice of America