After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most displaced persons seeking protection in Europe initially expected to stay only temporarily. As the war persisted however, many reconsidered their plans and adapted to prolonged displacement.
Some of those who arrived in 2022 chose to return to (safe regions in) Ukraine for reasons including family reunification; as well as challenges in their host countries including high living costs, language barriers, and difficulties finding employment in their professional fields. Consequently, the majority of those who remained in their host countries in Europe, along with those who arrived since 2023, opted for a longer-term stay than originally envisaged.
In the beginning I always thought it’s just temporary […]. You kind of didn’t want to commit to something because you think that you’re going to come back. But now it became more of a faded away thought. Because I don’t think I’m going to return to my hometown [Kharkiv] ever. Maybe to Kyiv.said V¹, one of the displaced Ukrainian women interviewed.
Such sentiments have changed the perspectives of displaced persons, driven by the destruction of their homes, the ongoing danger of war, and the loss of social connections from their home communities. Displaced Ukrainians and others fleeing from Ukraine need time to process their experiences and adapt to their new realities. One woman described the psychological and emotional burden she experienced during her first six months out of Ukraine:
You have to live with your pain. You need time to process all this and be able to start and go further. And as I see for some [Ukrainian] people that I know here […] they are still somewhere in the middle; they are still having this pain. They are just stuck. It was like a process, […] you are not able to do anything. You’re just waiting.reflected K¹, another interviewee in Austria, speaking about how she needed space to work through her trauma before she could actively take steps toward rebuilding her life and engaging in her labour market integration
A unique context for labour market participation
Temporality plays a significant role in the challenges displaced Ukrainians face when seeking adequate work in their host countries. These include getting their qualifications recognised (with difficulties due to different educational systems), meeting employers’ high language requirements, accessing full-day childcare, and dealing with the ongoing uncertainty of their temporary residence status.
Within the European context, displacement from Ukraine is characterised by some unique features. Most people fleeing Ukraine since 2022 are women accompanied by children². Many have become single parents or have care responsibilities for their relatives, and are generally well-qualified with several years of professional experience.
While displaced persons on temporary protection receive social welfare benefits, have mobility rights, access to residence and labour market, many employers hesitate to hire them due to their uncertain residence status and the possibility of them leaving unexpectedly, especially when compared to the required investments in training and on-boarding.
In some EU Member States, beneficiaries of temporary protection can transition to work-based residence permits aimed at longer-term integration. However, according to support organisations, many displaced persons struggle to meet the requirements (e.g., minimum employment duration and income thresholds). This is often due to care responsibilities, low-paid jobs that do not match their qualifications, disabilities, ongoing education, or being above working age. Consequently, those who do not meet these criteria remain under temporary protection status.
This situation is further complicated by the ongoing uncertainty about future developments in Ukraine. This temporality of residence status poses a unique challenge for an effective participation – especially for women. Thus, gender-specific integration measures are more important than ever.
Applying a gender-specific approach
As a response, the INTAKE Study analysed the labour market participation of displaced women fleeing Ukraine in their host countries in Austria, Germany, and Poland, with the aim to improve policies and measures for them. The authors adopted a gender-specific approach to analyse sustainable labour market participation.
Funded by Austria’s National Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Austrian Chancellery in January 2023-December 2024, ICMPD researchers took a closer look at innovative examples of labour market participation in these three countries under study. The analysis was based on qualitative interviews conducted with displaced women fleeing from Ukraine, as well as with other stakeholders such as support organisations, public labour market agencies, public administrations, civil society—including the Ukrainian diaspora—and academia.
The INTAKE Study’s recommendations therefore include streamlined recognition of qualifications through gender-sensitive competency assessments that consider non-traditional career paths; as well as providing a smooth transition to long-term residence that accommodates the specificity of the situation of displaced women. The study also recommends improving language learning through a combination of , as well as collecting data about the qualifications of displaced persons.
By addressing the significant barriers that displaced Ukrainian women face in labour market participation, their high qualification levels can contribute to alleviate the growing labour shortages in EU countries. Gender-sensitive policies and targeted support measures will be key to unlocking the full potential not only of displaced women from Ukraine but also of migrant women more broadly.
About the authors
Jimy Perumadan works as a Researcher at ICMPD's Research Unit, with over 10 years of research experience on the labour market integration of refugee women, policies on international protection, and anti-trafficking.
Bernhard Perchinig is Senior Researcher at ICMPD. He is a political scientist with more than 30 years of research and consultancy experience in the field of migration, integration and citizenship studies. His research focus is on European migration- and integration policies, policies and (multilevel) migration governance, labour migration, and migration and development.
Co-authors of the INTAKE study, are ICMPD’s researchers Bernhard Perchinig, Laetitia Hohwieler, Anna Piłat and Justyna Segeš Frelak.
Full report of the INTAKE study (in German) and Policy Brief (in German) can be downloaded below.
¹ For references of this piece, respondents’ names are obscured to protect their identity.
² According to Eurostat (2025): 40.4% of all beneficiaries of temporary protection in December 2024 were women aged 18-64; and 31.9% were children. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/de/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250210-1.
³ IAB 2024: https://iab.de/en/publications/publication/?id=14119812
Listen to ICMPD’s recent podcast on the situation of Ukrainians both at home and in the EU, the prospects of returning to and reconstruction of Ukraine, the work at the Ukrainian Consultation Centres (UCC), and how ICMPD has been supporting Ukraine three years on since the beginning of the invasion.