Building bridges to the future for displaced Ukrainian youth

Highlights

In the fifth year of the full-scale war, Ukraine’s young people continue to live with the consequences of one of the largest refugee crises in the world, and Europe’s most profound displacement since the Second World War. More than 6.9 million Ukrainians are away from home, most of them in Europe. Czechia, Poland and Slovakia together host almost 1.5 million of these refugees, including more than 300,000 adolescents and young adults aged 15–24 years.

While the legal provisions in these three countries formally guarantee refugees access to schools, training programmes and the job market, the reality for many adolescents and young adults is complex. Adolescents and young people stumble over language barriers, mismatched curricula, the psychological weight of displacement and the pressure to contribute to family incomes. Some cling to the Ukrainian curriculum, offered online through the All-Ukrainian Online School, hoping it will ease their return. Others try to juggle online lessons with occasional attendance in local schools, never quite finding solid ground. Too many abandon schools altogether and are drawn into precarious work, often informal and exploitative, which threatens both their well-being and their futures.