European countries should already be preparing for the long-term integration of refugees from Ukraine – because any return could be a long time coming. By thinking now about the position of the refugees during the reconstruction of Ukraine, tensions can be avoided – both within EU societies and between Member States, and in the relationship with Kyiv.
It is the most important recommendation from a report that Lodewijk Asscher, former PvdA leader and minister of Social Affairs, will present in Brussels this Tuesday. Last year, as a special adviser to the European Commission, Asscher investigated the reception and integration of Ukrainian refugees in the EU.
Extremely successful
They were extremely successful, concludes Asscher in his final report. “The EU can be proud of how swift, smooth and comprehensive its response has been,” he writes. The success is a direct result of the decision to immediately issue temporary residence permits to all Ukrainian refugees anywhere in the EU, giving them the right to education and care and to work. This special status had never been granted to refugees before.
It provided, says Asscher in an explanation, “stability and protection” for the refugees themselves, but also had a positive effect in the receiving societies. “It shows that the focus on economic self-sufficiency and integration has worked extremely well.” The special status for Ukrainians was extended by one year last autumn until 2024 and can be extended again until 2025 at the latest.
But even after that, many Ukrainians will want and have to stay in the EU, even during the reconstruction period, Asscher emphasises. It is, he says, “sometimes an unpleasant truth” for EU countries. In his report, Asscher proposes to give Ukrainians a ‘reconstruction permit’ for up to 10 years, so that they can both enjoy protection in the EU and contribute to reconstruction in their own country.
Solidarity
The EU should quickly discuss the concrete conditions of such a residence status with the Ukrainian government, says Asscher. Also to avoid tensions with Kyiv, about whether Ukrainian labor is not just being used to fill shortages in the EU without taking into account what Ukraine itself needs. “For Ukraine, for example, it is now good if refugees are deployed at their own level, so that they can develop further. It is the duty of the EU to show solidarity in the new phase and, above all, to think about what is in the interest of Ukraine.”
EU governments should also prepare themselves for a longer stay by the Ukrainians, by thinking about the pressure this will create on their own societies. “If you keep telling your own residents that people will leave within six months, you feed cynicism. This also requires a long-term strategy.” The pressure will remain particularly high on countries on the border with Ukraine, which is why European solidarity remains important.
Model for integration
The EU can learn important lessons from the decision to immediately grant Ukrainians a residence permit and admit them to the labor market, says Asscher. It can, he writes in his report, serve as a ‘model of integration policy for future groups of protected refugees and third-country nationals’. It is in line with a discussion that is being held in the Netherlands about whether other asylum seekers should also be helped to find work more quickly.
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Asscher does not want to get involved in that political discussion, he emphasizes. “You also have to separate the discussion about who has the right to stay here from the question: how do you then deal with the group that stays?” It is nevertheless clear, according to him, that the model used for the Ukrainians has been very successful, as a result of which people were able to start work immediately and thus integrate more quickly into local networks. “By easing the burden of the waiting process that has marked the lives of so many people on the run, and thereby painting a very different picture for host societies, it has been able to convince Europeans that refugees were not the problem – the Putin’s war is,” he writes.
“The contrast is of course great with people waiting endlessly in a procedure, in the hope that they will disappear again,” Asscher explains. “Every person benefits from being able to shape their own future, and people also go back faster if they are economically independent. You have to learn those lessons. And that the EU has succeeded on such a large scale, you can really derive self-confidence from that.”