Nearly 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine in Europe are children. As the war continues, the question remains: will integrated Ukrainians return to help rebuild or remain abroad for greater opportunity?
ADVERTISEMENTLooking out at the sea on a winter’s evening, Anna is like many millions of other Ukrainians who have left their home country in search of safety for themselves and their children from the ongoing Russian invasion.
Anna brought her two daughters in spring 2022 from the capital Kyiv to a provincial seaside town on the south coast of Wales.
"My younger one (7) absorbs everything, she speaks fluent English and sings in Welsh," Anna told Euronews.
"My eldest (13) has no motivation to study here. She says, ‘What do I need to learn here for, when I will take exams in Ukraine?’, but how do you know you will come back or not?"
The number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in the EU increased in all member states, excluding Denmark, a recent report from Eurostats highlighted.
Adult women make up almost half, or 46.4% of beneficiaries and children account for one-third (33.4%).
Nearly two years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Anna is forced to face the decision of returning to potential danger back home or the prospect of her kids losing their grip on their home culture.
The same choice will come to millions of children and their parents or guardians when deciding whether to return and rebuild Ukraine after the war is over or stay for greater opportunity in the EU.
A Ukrainian education keeping ties with home
With an influx of more than 1.4 million children into the EU, there have been struggles with educating a large population that doesn’t speak the host country's language, with capacity of space and teachers being a big issue.
Only half of all Ukrainian refugee children were enrolled in schools in host countries for the 2022-2023 academic year, a report by the UNHCR found, citing some of the main reasons as a hesitancy among parents to enrol their children in host countries as they hope to return home soon, as well as uncertainty about eventual reintegration into the Ukrainian education system.
Instead, many parents choose to either have their children go back to Ukraine for as many days as their host countries allow or take up a second Ukrainian education alongside their host countries' schooling, each bringing considerable challenges.
"A lot of our pupils are pulling two school programs at the same time: German and Ukrainian. In essence, they have a double burden," Oksana, a Ukrainian teacher in Saxony, explained to Euronews.
"We can predict that the longer the war lasts, the more families and children decide to build their new lives in new countries, but this does not mean a loss of their national identity or feeling distanced from Ukraine."
One way of dealing with this is through distance learning. Optima is the largest distance school in Ukraine, with more than 15,000 students in Ukraine and Europe. Its "We are from Ukraine" package is specifically designed for children attending schools abroad, prioritising Ukrainian language, culture and literature.
Other parents decide that raising their children in Ukraine is worth the risks. Back in Wales, Anna recalled another friend's experience: "They decided [their son] would go to school in Ukraine; I remember his mom telling me they were choosing a school with a good shelter, a private school."
Who will return to rebuild Ukraine?
In a question-and-answer session with students at Toronto University in 2022, a Ukrainian graduate asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy what she could do for her homeland whilst abroad.
His response: "Your job is to study hard and earn good grades, and then be ready to come back to Ukraine with new knowledge and help us rebuild the country."
With so many of Ukraine’s future generations living abroad — and already facing an emigration issue before the war — it’s no surprise that the more culturally assimilated and economically tied to their host country refugees are, the less will return to rebuild.
ADVERTISEMENT"The Ukrainian authorities understand the dangers of not returning Ukrainians after the war," the Educational Ombudsman Service of Ukraine told Euronews. "The longer the war lasts, the more reasons a large part of Ukrainian refugees have to stay abroad."
Some 76% of refugees from Ukraine planned or hoped to return, a UNHCR report from July showed. As the war comes into its third year, this means that nearly a quarter don’t plan on going back at all — a statistic that may go up the longer families, and children in particular, strengthen their connections in their host countries.
"The future of Ukraine's economy and its recovery depends on whether it will be possible to return Ukrainians home after the war. This is a mega-important factor," chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pishniy said.
The level of young Ukrainians' integration is one factor, but how the Ukrainian state provides for this potential workforce when the war ends is another.
"If [the Ukrainian state] does not take care of these children and create conditions for their return, then after living in Europe, some children will not want to return because they are not needed there and have already adapted," Tetiana Suchodolska, Coordinator of the Ukrainian Education Hub in Poland, explained to Euronews.
ADVERTISEMENTThe tide moves along the beach as Anna ponders whether it’s better to stay for the possible opportunities of her children in western Europe or to go back and live in her home country once again.
"You start to think whether you’re ready to sacrifice for this bigger idea. We can’t decide for our children, but I don’t even know," Anna said.
"If we had an opportunity to stay here or go to Ukraine... that's a hard choice. Maybe some better future is here, and who knows how long the war will continue and how long it will take to rebuild."