“What I Want versus What I Will Agree to”—An Analysis of the Views of Ukrainian Refugees toward Work

Abstract

Russia’s armed attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 started one of the worst refugee crises of the 21st century. It caused involuntary migrations of Ukrainians to other countries, mainly to Europe, and caused the refugees to face the challenge of integrating with the host countries’ labor markets. The aim of this study was to analyze the views of the Ukrainian refugees who migrated to two European countries: Poland and Hungary. We took into account self-esteem, social support, good job expectations, and submissiveness in the labor market. The data were obtained via a survey method using the modified CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interview) technique between 21 November and 20 December 2022 from 807 adult Ukrainian refugees. Results show that disability fosters lower self-esteem, self-assessment of resources, and job demands. Among those who have children, the mean value of self-esteem was higher than in the group without any children. No statistically significant differences were found in the area of professional work. According to the estimation of structural model results, expectations of a good job have a significant, negative effect on the tendency toward submissiveness. The assessment of personal resources and the level of self-esteem have a significant and positive effect on the expectations of a good job. Both a higher level of personal resources and a higher level of self-esteem resulted in higher good job expectations. The assessment of personal resources also has a positive effect on the level of self-esteem. We also found a direct relationship between personal resources, self-esteem, and the tendency toward submissiveness.

Keywords

• Ukrainian refugees
• human capital theory
• war refugees
• labor market
• social support
• self-esteem