Refugees and labor migrants from Ukraine in Slovakia

We compare the labor market outcomes of Ukrainian migrants in two different classes of admission groups: those who entered the Slovak labor market in the year preceding Russia's invasion of Ukraine holding a work permit (i.e., labor migrants) and those who entered the Slovak labor market in the year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine holding temporary refuge (i.e., refugees). The differences in educational attainment between the two groups were marginal: 22.2% of labor migrants and 23.2% of refugees had attained tertiary education. Nevertheless, refugees experienced a stronger initial education-occupation mismatch in their first job compared to labor migrants (46% vs. 30%). Furthermore, they were more likely to work in elementary occupations compared to labor migrants (38% vs. 14%). However, refugees were more attached to the labor market than labor migrants. Throughout the year, they worked 164.6 days, whereas labor migrants worked only 130.3 days. This suggests that Ukrainians are willing to work in Slovakia longer than the current legislation regulating the employment of third-country citizens allows.

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