This paper studies the relationship between professional experiences and return intentions of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Using country-wide, online surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 and worker-level measures of job tasks, we show that refugees’ high employment rate coexists with widespread occupational downgrading and task degradation. Refugees transitioning to lower-skilled jobs after arriving in Poland faced stark increases in routine task intensity (RTI), often equivalent to shifts from managerial to clerical roles. Even those retaining their occupational status experienced heightened RTI, signalling underutilisation of skills. We find that refugees who experience a greater task degradation were more likely to plan to return to Ukraine by 2023, particularly those who initially, in 2022, did not plan to return. This relationship persists even after accounting for earnings and occupational downgrading. These findings underscore the role of job content in shaping migration decisions and highlight implications for host countries’ labour market policies and refugee integration strategies.
We thank the participants of the “Return and Integration Prospects of Ukrainian Refugees” workshop in Nuremberg for their helpful comments. The paper uses data collected in a survey financially supported by the International Organization for Migration. Usual disclaimers apply. All errors are ours.
