The European Commission on October 14th announced that it was extending the Temporary Protection Directive under which Ukrainians have been given shelter in EU countries until March 2024.
This means that for those that remain of the Ukrainians who have come, their stay here is becoming more and more like a medium-to-long-term situation, particularly as Russia's recent attacks on power and water infrastructure led Ukraine's government to request recently that citizens already living overseas stay there to limit demands for power and heating over the winter.
One result of this is that the lower level of support they receive in comparison to those seeking asylum under the standard route, which would have perhaps been acceptable for six months to a year, is becoming more difficult to live off, especially in a situation where Sweden is experiencing rising inflation.
On Saturday, a group of Swedish-Ukrainian NGOs published a debate article in the Expressen newspaper calling on the new Swedish government to increase the spending money given to Ukrainians, give them access to free Swedish classes, and give them more help to find jobs.
Here are some of the problems Ukrainians are facing.
Spending money impossible to live on
Ukrainian refugees living in an asylum centre which provides meals are given just 24 kronor a day for a single adult, which is reduced to 19 kronor a day for two adults sharing household expenses, plus an extra 12 kronor per day for each child.
Most of the Ukrainians who have come to live in Sweden are, however, in accommodation that does not provide food, and they receive a slightly larger payment of 71 kronor a day.
"It's less than one lunch," Karina Shyrokykh, an associate professor at Stockholm University whose mother is currently living on this basic payment, told The Local. "It's difficult to imagine how one can survive on this money."
No free Swedish courses
Unlike other asylum seekers who come to Sweden, people coming under the Temporary Protection Directive are not entitled to free Swedish for Immigrant (Svenska för Invandrare, SFI) courses, making it more difficult to learn even the basic level of Swedish necessary to find decent work.
"It means they are doomed to do the simplest jobs, despite their level of education, because you need to know Swedish to be able to do anything here," says Shyrokykh. "They are also automatically doomed to be exposed to fraudulent employers who want to exploit them, because they can't understand their contracts."
The municipality of Hylte in the southern Swedish county of Halland last week decided to offer Ukrainians SFI, with the council footing the bill, and other municipalities, such as Landskrona and Ystad have also done so.
Adult education organisations, such as ABF and Folkuniversitetet, have also been offering free Svenska för Ukrainare courses in various municipalities but it is no replacement for the full SFI course.
No personal number or access to BankID
Even Ukrainians who have managed to get decent jobs struggle because the TPD does not, as interpreted by Sweden anyway, give them access to BankID, the digital identity system which is the key to so much of Swedish life.
Because the EU activated the EU Temporary Protection Directive for a year on March 4th, 2022, and most refugees from Ukraine arrived a month or more later, none of them have been able to prove that they intend to live in Sweden for a year, which is one of the requirements to be officially registered or folkbokförd as living in Sweden.
This means that they do not qualify for BankID, as being folkbokförd is in turn a prerequisite for being issued a "personal number" or personnummer, and holding a personnummer is in turn a prerequisite for access to the higher "trust level 3" eID solutions in Sweden, such as BankID and Freja Plus.
Instead, Ukrainians refugees in Sweden have only been issued with the lesser "coordination number" or samordningsnummer, which only entitles holders to 'trust level 2' eID, such as the standard Freja digital-ID system, which can only be used to access a few services.
The Local is currently trying to ascertain if the decision on October 14th of the European Commission's Home Affairs Committee to extend the directive for another year until March 4th 2024 will allow Ukrainian refugees to be officially registered, therefore granting them access to a personal number and a BankID.
Instead Ukrainians have to use a bankdosa, a small device similar in appearance to a miniature calculator, for logging in.
"If you stay here for half a year, it's not that big a problem," says Viktoria. "But I have a tillsvidareanställning, a long-term contract, so I will be staying here for some years at least, and without BankID I don't have so much motivation to stay a long time."
Less help getting jobs
People who get a residence permit in Sweden on the basis of asylum are given an etableringsplan or "plan for establishment", and receive additional help from the Swedish Public Employment Service in getting a job.
Ukrainians who move to Sweden under the directive do not get the same access to training, career guidance and other support to get into work.
All they receive is access to the service's database of available jobs, and access to "vocational introductory jobs", where 15 percent of working hours can be used for training or guidance, and also jobs with wage subsidies, in which the employer is given a subsidy for giving employment to someone who is finding it hard to get a job.
Living in limbo
According to Shyrokykh, one of the big problems faced by Ukrainians sheltering in Sweden is that Sweden has made it so clear that their position is temporary, which makes it harder to get be part of Swedish society.
"My impression is that since they live in some sort of limbo, it's really difficult to find a place because they are being explicitly told, 'it's temporary, we won't give you opportunities to integrate, and we kind of wouldn't want you to integrate, because we expect you to leave'," she says.
For Viktoria, a particular problem is her uncertainty over whether time spend living in Sweden under the Temporary Protection Directive will count towards permanent residency or citizenship should she decide to stay longer in the country.
"What rights does this give us for the future, what options do I have if I want to stay here?" she asks. "So maybe for me, it's better to move to a work permit."
The Local is currently waiting for an answer from the Migration Agency on this issue.
Are you a Ukrainian living here in Sweden under the Temporary Protection Directive? Get in touch with us at news@thelocal.se if there are any issues you're facing which you would like us to cover.
Comments