Northern Ireland

Ireland takes in much higher proportion of Ukrainian refugees compared to the UK, France and Germany

Hundreds of Ukrainians celebrated their Independence Day last August at an event in Dublin. New figures also show that Ireland has taken in one of the highest proportions of Ukrainian refugees in Europe.
Hundreds of Ukrainians celebrated their Independence Day last August at an event in Dublin. New figures also show that Ireland has taken in one of the highest proportions of Ukrainian refugees in Europe.
By Allan Preston

IRELAND takes in a higher proportion of Ukrainian refugees than many other European countries including the UK, France and Germany.

According to figures by the OECD, a global policy think thank with 38 member countries, Ireland is seventh out of 34 countries with 17 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants.

The Sunday Independent report that the figures from last June show Estonia is the most welcoming to Ukrainian refugees, welcoming 36 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Ireland, on proportion, takes in five times more Ukrainians than the UK which welcomed 3.5 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants.

The figure for France was one per 1,000, Germany was 12.8 while Italy welcomed 3.1 and the United States welcomed 1.1.

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Jean-Christophe from the OECD called the Irish figures “surprising” because of the location and tiny Ukrainian diaspora before the war.

“Three things put Ireland on the map: the fact that Ireland has been very vocal and welcoming from the start; English is very important; and Ireland has been very generous,” he said.

In total, Ireland had welcomed 86,575 Ukrainian refugees by last June in contrast to 233,600 in the UK and 70,570 in France and over a million in Germany.

In purely numerical terms, Ireland is 12th out of the OECD’s 38 member countries.

Mr Dumont said that Ireland’s quick offer to refugees after Russia first invaded Ukraine in February last year was “very loud and clear”.

“The package offered to Ukrainians was quite attractive when compared internationally,” he said.

“Now it is more equivalent to what other countries are offering — not all of them, but most of them.

“Social benefits vary from one country to the next. Germany took a few months before there was full access to social security, and France and Sweden only offered the monthly asylum allocation — which is a few hundred euros. Ireland offered full access to social security almost from day one.”​

Mr Dumont added that word of mouth spread about the positive experience of Ukrainians in Ireland.

“They let others in Ukraine know. The news spread. What happened in the first weeks and months obviously had some long-lasting effects,” he said.

Another major selling point was Ireland’s IT-orientated labour market.

“A lot of the Ukrainians that left were very highly skilled. It’s not so surprising that a high share of them chose Ireland,” Dumont said.