Ukrainians fleeing Poland en masse – media

Tighter conditions for accessing social programmes a less favourable economic climate are reportedly pushing migrants to Germany.

Ukrainians are increasingly leaving Poland for Germany, motivated by higher wages and better access to social benefits, the Ukrainian information portal InPoland has reported. Warsaw has stated that it will not accept any more immigrants amid growing discontent with Ukrainians among Polish taxpayers.

“One of the main reasons for Ukrainian refugees moving from Poland to Germany is that higher wages, social benefits and better healthcare make Germany more attractive to refugees,” InPoland wrote on Saturday.

Stricter conditions for access to social programs, as well as “economic factors” have “become decisive causes for this migration wave,” the site noted.

In recent months, officials in Warsaw have claimed that Polish taxpayers are becoming fatigued by the sight of Ukrainians flaunting flamboyant lifestyles rather than returning home to help fight against Russia. On Monday, Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak stated that Poland will stop taking in migrants, despite being bound by an EU pact on migration adopted last year.

Last month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk backed a bill to stop benefit payouts to refugees, including Ukrainians, unless they live, work and pay taxes in Poland.

Warsaw has previously announced that it would not shelter Ukrainian men seeking to evade Kiev’s increasingly harsh mobilization campaign, arguing that benefit payouts would effectively subsidize draft evasion.

Last year, faced with mounting losses, Ukraine was forced to reduce the mandatory conscription age. The mobilization campaign has reportedly led to increased draft evasion and rampant corruption, with the latest Ukrainian data suggesting that around half a million men are dodging conscription.

Despite Poland initially being the top destination in the EU for Ukrainians after the escalation of the conflict in 2022, Germany has now become the favored refuge. In 2022, the number of Ukrainian migrants in Poland peaked at 1.36 million, according to Eurostat. In recent months, however, Germany has surpassed Poland and now has around 150,000 more Ukrainians than its eastern neighbor.

Berlin will not grant asylum to Ukrainians that have lived abroad for some time and don’t face imminent danger from the conflict, RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) wrote on Saturday, citing the federal government. According to the outlet, nearly one in five of all rejected asylum applications in Germany over the last half of 2024 were from Ukraine. German lawmakers have argued that cutting benefits to Ukrainians could motivate men to return home and fight.

Russia has accepted around 5.3 million people from Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, TASS reported in 2023, citing a source in the security services.

Image credit: Krzysztof Walczak