Quarter of Ukrainian refugees plan to settle in Germany permanently - media

MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Thirty-four percent of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Germany want to stay in the country until the end of the crisis, and another 26% said they would like to settle there permanently, Ukrainian media said with reference to the Deutsche Welle radio station, which, in turn, cites the findings of a public opinion survey carried out by three German sociological centers together with Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

Eleven percent of Ukrainian refugees who took part in the poll said they plan to stay in Germany for several years, 2% of respondents plan to leave within a year, and the others do not yet know whether they will stay in Germany and for how long.

Ninety-one percent of Ukrainian families currently in Germany said that their children who are of school age are attending German schools. Nearly a quarter of such families said that their children are also simultaneously attending one of Ukrainian schools online. These figures are particularly high among Ukrainian refugees who would like to return to their home country once the crisis is over.

The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians who arrived in Germany are women (80%), and more than have of them (48%) have young children. As regards male refugees from Ukraine, 71% of them arrived in Germany with their family members, i.e. wives, adult daughters and grandchildren, 6% reunited with their wives who were already in Germany, and 16% are unmarried men and men without children, but they include a large number of elderly people and people with disabilities.

Two-thirds of refugees arrived from crisis-stricken regions, including 32% from the eastern regions, and 14% from the south of Ukraine.

Eighteen percent of Ukrainian refugees (this figure stands at 24% among men) have found a job in Germany, and their number keeps growing every month. This proportion is significantly higher than among refugees from other countries. Meanwhile, 60% of Ukrainian refugees are receiving state support and living in accommodation that is paid for by social authorities, whereas 40% are not receiving any state assistance in Germany.

A mere 4% of polled Ukrainian refugees know German well, and 80% said that their knowledge of German is poor or that they cannot speak German at all. Half of Ukrainian refugees are attending German language courses, and a third of them are attending integration courses as well.