76% of Ukrainians in Poland want to stay... Forever

Polskie Radio reports 76 % of Ukrainians who are living in Poland wish to stay there permanently. Just 15% of Ukrainians in Poland want to return home when their visas expire. About 39% are currently in the act of seeking ways to stay.

Nearly 375,000 Ukrainians applied to work in Poland in 2014, 155,000 more than the previous year. With the deteriorating economic situation in Ukraine and the war in the east, many Ukrainians are looking for some security.

It's Cyrillic to me

The Russian language is coming back to Polish schools. This year 30,000 students have decided to pass an examination for the secondary school certificate in Russian. Under communism, this subject was compulsory and yet still most graduates couldn't really speak fluent or even fair Russian after leaving school. This was because Russian was mentally rejected by generations of young Poles as the main language of the Soviet Union, an oppressive state occupying Poland.

However, contemporary Polish students don't have this sort of negative connotation with Russia or any kind of Russian complex. Therefore, they are likely to treat Russian as any other language. At the same time, it now pays to speak Russian, which, combined with English or German, is an advantage for a young person looking for a good job. Many private companies are keen to do business in Russia and they need Russian-speakers.