Ukrainians abroad are less and less inclined to return to the Motherland – study

shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. illustrative photo by Getty Images

According to the results of the study of the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research named after Razumkov, in 2025, Ukrainians abroad increasingly rarely perceive the return to the Motherland as a definite prospect.

Source: expert on social programs of the Razumkov Center Olga Pyschulina during a press conference on December 18, Interfax-Ukraine quotes

Details: “We record a significant decrease in the number of those who intend to return home,” Pyschulina said.

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According to her, in 2022, studies showed that Ukrainians declared their intention to quickly return after the end of active hostilities. At the same time, already since 2023, the share of those who hesitate or postpone making a decision has increased.

“Intentions to return remain high at the so-called value level. People continue to consider themselves Ukrainians, citizens of Ukraine, but realistic return plans are becoming more and more context-dependent,” the expert emphasized.

Pyshchulina also noted that depending on the audience to which the researchers are addressing, return scenarios operate with different time horizons and conditions.

In particular, in the expert environment, return scenarios are more often considered in a strategic logic, at the macro level, as a gradual, selective and conditional process, which depends primarily on security factors, economic recovery and the state policy of reintegration for citizens who will return.

Instead, among the migrants themselves, more individual scenarios prevail, which include delayed return, circular mobility or partial family return. Decisive factors here are issues of employment, children’s education, housing, as well as the level of integration in the host country.

The participants of the press conference noted that if Ukraine, together with international partners, does not actively begin to form incentives and return programs, then after 2027 some Ukrainians may permanently remain outside the country.

“Without clear strategic and tactical documents, program decisions and concrete action plans for the reintegration of Ukrainians, we will continue to observe a situation that, in fact, is already ongoing,” emphasized Pavlo Rozenko, an expert on social and economic policy, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2016-2019.

At the same time, Benjamin Bobbe, deputy director of the Institute of European and Transatlantic Dialogue, head of the Central and Eastern Europe Department of the Hans Seidel Foundation, emphasized that people are Ukraine’s most valuable resource, critically needed for its post-war reconstruction.

“It is extremely important for European countries to realize that Ukrainians with their knowledge should return to Ukraine and rebuild it, using their potential,” he said.

“Interfax-Ukraine” indicates that, based on the results of the study, recommendations were formulated for state authorities, local self-government bodies and international partners aimed at developing a national reintegration strategy, strengthening the role of communities and creating stable socio-economic conditions for the return of citizens.

It is indicated that the project is implemented with the support of the Hans Seidel Foundation in Ukraine.