They agree to work for less money and perform hard work: how Ukrainians live in the Czech Republic

[ad_1]

After the start of the full-scale war, many Ukrainians left for Europe for temporary protection. Some of them ended up territorially not far from Ukraine – they settled in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or the Czech Republic.

“UP. Life” has already told about how Ukrainians live in Slovakia and how they are treated there.

The heroines of our new publication live in the neighboring Czech Republic. All of them came there after the start of the great war and already have jobs and temporary housing.

The woman told “UP. Life” about her way of adapting to the country.

“They don’t remember the tanks in Prague, but if you remind them, they can say that there were also Ukrainians in this army”

Before the full-scale invasion, Yulia lived in Poltava, where she moved from occupied Luhansk in 2014. In Ukraine, the woman worked as a commercial director and supervisor.

On March 1, 2022, Yulia and her daughter reached Poland, but a friend invited her to the Czech Republic, recommending a job.

“I understood that I was going, not as a refugee, but to work. It took a month to prepare the documents, and we were also paid 5,000 kroner each for several months (over 200 euros – ed.) aid per person”, – says Yulia.

The woman got a job working at a car factory in three shifts. The work is very difficult: you have to unload metal products. The cost of renting the apartment in which the family lives is partially compensated by the employer.

Yuliya says that despite the hard work, she was lucky that she got a job directly, and not through Ukrainian intermediaries, who can take a part of the salary for employment and not pay taxes or insurance.

Photo: GettyImages-Miroslav-Petrasko

Yulia admits that she is engaged in low-skilled work, where only Ukrainians and Czechs who do not have education or have a low social status.

For almost two years in the country, Yulia has not yet fully got used to the local way of life.

“People’s mentality is very different from ours. I thought we were more similar. However, Czechs are closed, they smile when you meet, but you don’t know what’s in their head. It’s not customary to share experiences and emotions here, even with friends.” – says Yulia.

Julia likes medicine in the Czech Republic. It is not easy to get an appointment with a doctor, you have to wait. However, in hospitals, all expensive procedures are free.

According to the woman, mostly Czechs perceive Ukrainians calmly, however, if you read local publications, you will get the impression that ours are not liked here.

“There are people who remember the USSR and believe that they had a good life then. They don’t remember the tanks in Prague, but if you remind them, they can say that Ukrainians and Poles were part of this army. They believe that this was not done by Russia, but by the USSR”, – says the Ukrainian woman.

The woman says that she encountered cases when a Czech approached her on the street and called her “Ukrainian blood.” However, offensive words can often be heard from people who are drunk and poorly educated.

“They think that because of us they have a low salary, because we agreed to work for less money.” – says Yulia.

The woman wants to return to Ukraine after the end of the war. Real estate in the Czech Republic is very expensive, and Julia does not see the possibility of buying it on her own.

“There is a place to live, there is a job, the children are not hungry, and thank God”

Khrystyna, a resident of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, left for the Czech Republic at the beginning of the full-scale war with her three children and her husband, who had cancer.

Unfortunately, the man’s health worsened and he died. Khrystyna was left alone with her children in a foreign country.

“At first they helped us a lot, but then everything changed” – says the woman.

Photo: GettyImages-Andrew-Merry

According to Khrystyna, when she drives a car with Ukrainian license plates, other drivers can show her the middle finger, and her Ukrainian friends scribble the letter “Z” on the hood.

Also, the woman currently has a problem with a neighbor who does not want the family to live nearby.

However, Christina also has friends among the locals. In particular, a close friend who helped put her middle son, who needed an assistant, into school, and her youngest child into kindergarten.

Khrystyna herself worked at the factory. So far, she has completed manicure courses, received a license and an international certificate, so she plans to work in her profession. The woman’s eldest son also works in the Czech Republic.

“I met both nice people and not so good people here. At work, they are different. Sometimes I had to do more difficult work because I am Ukrainian.” – says Khrystyna.

However, according to the woman, it is possible to adapt to life in the country.

Photo: GettyImages-yoh4nn

“I cannot say that I am satisfied and that it is good here. I am now in such a state that there is a place to live, there is a job, the children are not hungry, and thank God” – says the Ukrainian woman.

“I don’t regret that I went to the Czech Republic. I work in my profession and have already gained authority”

Scientist Alla from Kharkiv considers herself an “untypical refugee” who did surprisingly well in the Czech Republic.

“Divine salvation and miracle”, she says.

Alla is a candidate of biological sciences, a soil scientist, before the war she worked at Kharkiv University.

Alla and her two sons, one of whom is adopted, left Kharkiv during the active hostilities in the spring of 2022, when transport was no longer running. First, the family went to Dnipro, where Alla’s friend, also her adoptive mother, lived.

Alla and the children had a backpack with food and water among their belongings, and they managed to take only underpants and socks from their clothes. The refugees were well received in the Dnipro, but as time passed, Russian troops advanced, and their native Kharkiv, where Alla’s husband and parents remained, was mercilessly shelled.

Like most refugees, Alla hoped that the war would end soon and she would be able to return home in a couple of months, but things turned out differently.

Photo: GettyImages-Zbynek-Pospisil

“Once a man called me and said: “You should go to the Czech Republic, because this country is the most developed of the Slavic countries, and the most Slavic of the developed countries.” And in 20 minutes, someone called my friend and offered to go to the Czech Republic. – my husband is paralyzed, and she offered me this opportunity.” Alla remembers.

While Alla and her children were traveling by evacuation train, her husband, also a scientist, contacted the community of scientists in the Czech Republic and arranged for the family to be settled in a dormitory of the Prague Agrarian University.

However, the family did not get to the hostel immediately.

“I felt like I was in some kind of dream. First, we were accommodated in a refugee shelter. Then we went to Prague, where the woman of a local scientist was supposed to meet us. Before that, we managed to get lost, we didn’t know how to buy tickets for transport either. I fell and broke my leg. Finally, the owners took us away. When they brought me hot chicken in the evening, I cried.” – says Allah.

Later, the woman and her children settled in a dormitory. Alla was offered several job options at a local university. She chose the one she was familiar with, because back in Ukraine she read the works of a scientist whose research she had to work on.

It took an hour to get to the new place of work, but this was not a problem for a woman from Kharkiv, because Prague is smaller than Alla’s hometown.

Alla’s working language is English, which she knows well.

She was paid a little more than 20,000 crowns a month (over 1,000 euros) for her work. Social benefits for a family of three people amounted to 15,000 kroner. That is, the woman could not work, but chose the job of a scientist instead of financial aid from the Czech Republic.

The woman initially signed a contract for a year, then she was asked if she would return home – the employers were sure that the Russian troops had already been driven away, and the Ukrainians were not in danger.

However, rockets still fly at Alla’s entrance in Kharkiv, and she well remembers the horror of the last days in her hometown, when the whole family was sitting in the corridor and basement.

Ali’s contract was extended, and she continues to study in Prague. The family moved from the dormitory to a rented apartment.

“I do not regret that I went to the Czech Republic. I work in my profession and have already gained authority. I am treated as a specialist and a professional. I have an interesting job and the respect of my colleagues.” – says the woman.

Alla does not feel bad attitude at work, like a Ukrainian woman. He says that he works with intelligent and educated people. However, on the street, in cafes, in public transport and in shops, she had several cases when the locals showed their contemptuous attitude.

“Those who earn little and are not satisfied, blame Ukraine, hold rallies. The opposition and oligarchs use it, manipulate people. They do not understand that the crisis is global, and if Ukraine surrenders to Putin, he will come to them.” – says the Ukrainian woman.

According to Alla, her son also has unfriendly classmates at school who say that “Ukrainian refugees steal money from the Czech government.”

Photo: GettyImages-Zbynek-Pospisil

Also, very often from Czechs you can hear the opinion that Ukrainians really like to work, that is why they agree to work for 12-14 hours.

“Actually, it is difficult for our compatriots to find qualified work in the country, and in order to survive, they are forced to accept the first best one,” says Alla.

Read also: In the Czech Republic, a waiter turned on the Russian national anthem to annoy Ukrainian women: he was fired

[ad_2]

Original Source Link