Currently, approximately 426 thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) reside in the capital of Ukraine, which accounts for about 10% of all displaced individuals in the country. However, only 27% of them are employed, while another 17% are actively seeking work. The rest remain unemployed due to a number of serious issues that complicate their integration into the capital’s labor market.
This is reported by Finway
Key Challenges for IDPs in Job Searching
According to the head of the IDP Council in Kyiv, Olha Altunina, the effectiveness of state assistance in the employment of internally displaced persons remains low. Over the past three years, only 8,400 displaced individuals have received assistance from the Employment Center in the capital, which is a small number compared to more than 246 thousand employable IDPs. Moreover, official statistics from the State Employment Center recorded only 61 employed displaced persons in Kyiv during this period, while 381 individuals became recipients of microgrants.
“Among the key reasons preventing IDPs from finding work in Kyiv are: discrimination and bias (reported by 32% of respondents); mismatch of qualifications with the demands of the capital’s labor market – many displaced individuals from Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions have specialties that are not in demand in Kyiv; loss or lack of educational documents, complicating the confirmation of qualifications; high competition with local residents for a limited number of vacancies.”
Additionally, the social situation among IDPs in Kyiv is challenging: 76% of families include socially vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, pensioners, and large families. 40% of displaced families live below the poverty line, forcing many to economize even on food.
Proposed Ways to Improve the Situation
Olha Altunina has put forward a number of initiatives to improve the employment situation for IDPs in Kyiv. Among the proposals are the creation of a separate program for the employment of displaced persons or the allocation of a special section in the National Employment Strategy, the development of public-private partnerships in the employment sector, the launch of local programs for specific communities, ensuring feedback from beneficiaries of state programs, as well as enhancing informational support and legal education for displaced persons.
Experts emphasize that addressing these issues will facilitate better integration of IDPs into the capital’s society and improve their quality of life.