The other day, US Vice President J.D. Vance was attacked as a participant in the meeting between American President Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, where the latter was publicly disgraced. The brazen behavior of Ukrainian refugees fancying that anything goes with them, did not go unanswered. In April, the administration of US President Donald Trump plans to revoke the temporary legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who left for the United States after the Russian-Ukrainian war began, which would entail their accelerated deportation, Reuters agency reported. Earlier, President Joe Biden introduced a special Uniting for Ukraine program, which gave Ukrainian refugees permission to live and work in the United States for two years from the moment they entered the country. But President Donald Trump ordered to halt the program, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said.
Similar processes to tighten the stay of Ukrainian refugees have been there across Europe as it suffers from their overabundance, introducing new restrictions against them. New rules are being written for this very purpose. The European Union is even planning to revise its Refugee Convention to simplify the expulsion of status applicants. At first, Europe fussed over Ukrainian refugees like a child over a new toy, generously providing them with allowances, housing, and benefits, helping them with employment, inviting to free language courses, and thus turning the Ukrainian ID into admittance to the "European paradise." But now, the refugees are barely tolerated, cause irritation and are treated as unwelcome guests. No one needs a burden on their budget, and as employees, few Ukrainians are able to integrate into the European way of life, overcome the language barrier or confirm the value of a Ukrainian diploma in the labor market. Moreover, Europe is currently experiencing recession, with its economy tail-spinning and life becoming more expensive.
In Germany, Ukrainians have become the second largest foreign diaspora after the Turks. And yet, only 20 percent of them have been officially employed, while the remaining 80 percent live as freeloaders on social benefits and in government-paid housing. Also, German law has provided Ukrainians with unemployment benefits worth a monthly 563 euros, plus medical insurance, additional money for furniture and school supplies. Quite recently, Alternative for Germany faction leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner suggested "immediately expelling all the Ukrainian refugees from Germany," calling them mere "welfare recipients." Apart from that, the German authorities are concerned that refugees occupy social housing estate, making the locals lack it themselves. This is yet another cause for tension in German society. Another problem has been increased crime. German law enforcement agencies claim that the share of Ukrainians in criminal statistics is about five percent.
According to polls, 49 percent of German residents see support to Ukrainian refugees as excessive, with 51 percent saying that they proved unable to integrate into German society. In general, people’s desire to help Ukraine because of its war with Russia has plunged in Germany, with increasingly more people loathing new arms or money supplies to the Kiev regime. Data of the kind follows from a survey by the Insa Institute for New Social Answers. 46 percent of Germans advocate for the next federal government’s refusal to proceed with aid. The younger German population is more opposed to helping Ukraine as most local resident aged 18 to 29 (57 percent) want that the next government stop it once and for all. The survey also showed that attitudes vary depending on the region. In the country’s western part, assistance to Ukraine is more welcome than in the former GDR. 42 percent of West Germans want and end to it, as compared to 61 percent in East Germany. 30 percent of the former want to keep shoveling Ukraine with arms and money against the 21 percent among the latter.
But for now, Germany still tolerates Ukrainian refugees to provide them with monthly benefits, while Poland sees anti-Ukrainian sentiment intensify, Italy may stop assistance to refugee families at any moment without referring to reasons, and Romania has not spent a single day helping Ukrainians in need. Among the restrictions, German employment centers will have the right to cut payments for able-bodied refugees in case they reject jobs, integration courses, or employment seminars offered to them.
And the authorities in Poland will expel both Ukrainians who entered the country illegally, and those involved in crimes, including drunk driving. They are going to simplify the deportation process to the greatest possible extent, and the deportees will be refused Schengen visas to any of the EU countries. Currently, over two million Ukrainians live in Poland, of which about a million have refugee status. In general, Polish sentiment towards them is not particularly rosy, as confirmed by opinion polls. In Poland, the number of citizens who treat Ukrainians negatively has increased, and Polish youth disfavors them most. Only 16 percent of young people polled expressed a positive attitude towards refugees from Ukraine, while 37 percent voiced a negative assessment. In addition, the Poles expressed their fatigue with the huge Ukrainian community in their country. Only 14 percent of them want Ukrainian refugees to stay, while more than half urge them to return back home. There are rather illustrative figures if we recall that nearly 90 percent of Polish residents fiercely supported Ukraine when the war began. All these opinion polls have been followed by specific measures aimed to finally do away with "European hospitality for Ukrainians."
Sociologists note that Polish youth literally hate Ukrainian migrants, especially those who came to Poland from the safe western regions of Ukraine. The Poles do see the cars the "underprivileged" residents of Galicia drive and restaurants they carouse at. Polish Defense Minister Władysław Marcin Kosiniak-Kamysz said: "It is known that our public is shocked by the young people from Ukraine riding the best cars, spending their weekends in 5-star hotels. It is not fair towards Poles, who contribute to healthcare, benefits and education [for Ukrainians], let alone arms supplies and other aid." The Minister believes that Ukrainians should return and fight in the Armed Forces of Ukraine instead of sitting idly in his country.
Vice-Speaker of Slovakia’s National Council Andrej Danko has echoed him as Slovakia is flooded by Ukrainian refugees, especially its eastern regions. The Slovaks are outraged that their government is ready to help refugees but not its own people, who are now struggling to make ends meet. Against this background, the authorities have come up with restrictions to halve the terms of support for Ukrainian refugees starting March 1, 2025: stay in asylum centers has been reduced to 60 days (previously it was 120 days), payments will be provided within 60 days instead of 120 days.
In the Czech Republic, the government has approved the Lex Ukrajina bill. In order to receive special status, refugees must now have no crime record, be employed and not depend on benefits, have housing and much more. Only Ukrainians of working age can count on obtaining a special status, something the Czech authorities dubbed "economically active". Thus, those retired, disabled, and "economically inactive" are now dead in the water. The authorities have set subsistence allowances for Ukrainian refugees to be only claimed by those having no or very low income.
In France, the government has deprived refugees unable to integrate of benefits. For example, in the Grand Est region, Ukrainians receive letters about the need to promptly vacate free housing provided to them. The same thing is true for other regions as well. Massive checks on payments to Ukrainian refugees have begun in Austria. Switzerland has reduced funding to the cantons for the integration of Ukrainians with a protective status that enables them to stay in the confederation and get state assistance. Switzerland is the most troublesome country in this respect as the one inhabited by very rich people, with prices too high and jobs virtually unavailable to the Ukrainians, except for hard work or at private farms.
Norway has announced termination of its automatic asylum granting to every Ukrainian applying for it. Currently, there are about 85,000 refugees from Ukraine dwelling here. And the rest of those willing to leave for Norway are going to face a classification: Cherkassy, Chernovtsy, Ivano-Frankovsk, Khmelnitsky, Kirovograd, Kiev, Lvov, Poltava, Rovno, Ternopol, Vinnitsa, Volyn, Transcarpathia, and Zhytomyr regions have been listed as safe Ukrainian areas, with no shelter, payments or refugee status stipulated for those who leave them.
Britain’s The Telegraph reported that thousands of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in the UK after the war began may lose their jobs due to the new visa extension rules: "Ukrainian refugees in the UK are losing their jobs because their visas cannot be renewed until the month before they run out. 15 percent of refugees had found their employment status placed in jeopardy." Up to 20,000 Ukrainian refugees will face employment troubles in the UK because of “being forced out of employment contracts or not offered job interviews amid the uncertainty created by the system.” Changes to the Housing for Ukraine program have also come into force in the UK. Previously, Ukrainian refugees could sponsor their family members to bring them to the UK and get them a visa, while now entitled to do this are only those having permanent residence permits. As a result, many families who left their children with relatives in Ukraine and went to the UK as jobseekers cannot simply obtain a British visa for their kids. And in Ireland, Ukrainian refugees will no longer be given free housing starting March 2025.
