Ukrainian Guest Workers in the Labor Market of Poland: Changing Trends in Labor Migration Processes

Abstract

The movement of Ukrainian guest workers in the direction of Poland until 2019 was predominantly transnational in nature, as there was a constant movement of labor migrants between the national spaces of Ukraine and Poland with financial participation in the economies of the two countries at the same time. This fact is confirmed by the results of empirical sociological researches conducted by the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, the Cedos analytical agency, the Personnel Service employment agency, the Gremi Personal, and the statistical data of the International Organization for Migration, the State Migration Service of Ukraine, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Family and Social Development of Poland. However, the trends changed dramatically due to the global COVID-19 epidemic, later in 2022 with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The desire for temporary, pendulum labor mobility gave way to the desire to leave Ukraine forever and settle abroad with the whole family. A new migration trend may be associated with the movement to Poland of Ukrainian men who come after the end of the war to reunite with their families, who were moved there earlier since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine.