Consequences of Hospitality. How the Baltic States received Ukrainian refugees

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Since April 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) has been regularly conducting surveys of Ukrainian refugees in 11 countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

In mid-April this year, the SMO published a series of reports on the results of Ukraine’s refugee reception policy in the three Baltic states. The experts focused on issues of employment, integration, language learning, as well as refugees’ future plans.

Different reception

According to the IMO, the largest number of refugees in the Baltic States came from the eastern regions of Ukraine. In Latvia, 20% came from Kherson region, the same – from Donetsk region, 15% – from Zapirozhye region. Among the refugees accepted in Lithuania, 15% are from Kharkiv region, 11% – from Donetsk region, 10% – from Dnipropetrovsk region. On the other hand, in Estonia, the first three places are occupied by Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. From the point of view of language, refugees in all three Baltic states are divided roughly in half: one part speaks Ukrainian at home, the other – Russian.

The needs of refugees in the three countries are very different. For example, in Latvia, 78% of respondents stated that they need basic information. 31% of those who came from Ukraine lacked food, 15% experienced financial difficulties. In Lithuania, among the three priority needs of refugees were financial support (cited by 35% of respondents), medical services (24%) and medicine (19%). On the other hand, in Estonia, Ukrainians most lacked language skills (32%), financial support (27%) and work (25%).

According to monitoring data, eight out of ten refugees in each country received food packages as support. In other respects, the amount and types of support differed.

For example, in 2023, 84% of Ukrainians received tangible financial assistance in Lithuania, 64% in Estonia, and only 33% in Latvia.

The most pressing issues for refugees are language learning and job search. While in Estonia 67% of the refugees who came from Ukraine learned the national language, in Lithuania their proportion was only 41%. On the other hand, such survey data is not available for Latvia.

In 2023, 59% of respondents were employed in Lithuania, 58% in Estonia, and only 53% in Latvia. In addition, only every third Ukrainian refugee of working age living in Latvia had enough average income to cover their monthly expenses in Latvia (the rest are supported by the support of relatives, savings and benefits).

Why do refugees leave Latvia?

As can be seen from the results of the study, the process of informing Ukrainian refugees about life in the country is the worst organized in Latvia. Two-thirds of the respondents admitted that they lack information about available financial support, medical services, short-term housing rental options and receiving hygiene products. It should be noted here that, judging by the survey data, Ukrainians who came to Latvia speak English worse than those who chose to go to Estonia and Lithuania. Among the Ukrainian refugees surveyed in Latvia, only 13% know this foreign language. For comparison, the proportion of English speakers among Ukrainians who arrived in Estonia is 41%, and in Lithuania – 37%.

Different degrees of integration affect Ukrainians’ willingness to stay in their host country. In Lithuania, 92% of respondents do not plan to go anywhere in the near future, in Estonia, 88% answered this way, but in Latvia… only 13%. 56% of the Ukrainian refugees who lived in Latvia last year were going to move to another country (Poland, Russia and Germany were named among the priority directions), while every fourth respondent had plans to return to Ukraine.

The main reasons for leaving Latvia were relatives and friends living in another country, as well as better job search prospects. More than half of the respondents intending to return to Ukraine admitted that they need financial support, housing and opportunities to find a job.

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