The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into 2026, with millions of Ukrainians displaced around the world. Many arrived in host countries with professional experience, degrees and specialized skills. Yet displacement often leaves highly educated refugees unable to continue their previous careers.
In Canada, the federal government has extended temporary measures for displaced Ukrainians, allowing for work permit extensions of up to three years.
But what happens to refugees’ employment after the first year, when they have moved beyond the immediate crisis of arrival, acclimatized and learned how a new country works?
New research by my colleagues and me — a team consisting of both Canadian and Ukrainian researchers — looks at how Ukrainian refugees’ employment changed after leaving Ukraine.
Our findings, published in the International Journal of Manpower, reveal a complex picture. While some refugees successfully rebuilt their careers, others experienced significant employment setbacks.
The qualification paradox
We analyzed data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on 1,429 Ukrainian refugees who were living and working outside Ukraine. We compared their employment before and after fleeing Ukraine.
We found three different outcomes: 58 per cent had employment declines, 34 per cent secured employment at the same level as before, and eight per cent had employment improvements.
A year after displacement, some refugees were succeeding while others were not. Why? The answer partly lies in what researchers have called the “qualifications paradox” — the idea that more education hurts rather than helps refugee employment outcomes.
Those with specialized or graduate degrees had nearly twice the odds of working below their previous employment level compared with those with high school education or less. This resulted in lost value for refugees.
Anna Didenko, a study co-author from the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine, said this to me about the phenomenon:
“I have seen highly educated Ukrainians experience some of the steepest professional setbacks after leaving Ukraine. Doctors who spent six or more years studying and years of clinical practice sometimes are forced into mismatched jobs because their qualifications don’t transfer easily.”
Who pays the steepest price
Nearly 90 per cent of respondents were women, reflecting Ukraine’s martial law, which prevents most military-age men from leaving the country.
Yet men were far less likely to experience employment downgrading. The difference was not simply about skills; caregiving responsibilities played an important role.
Child care and caring for household members were strongly linked to employment declines. A single parent may not be able to take on a retraining course, attend evening language classes or accept a shift that begins before a daycare opens.
Age also shaped employment outcomes. People under 35 were far more likely to recover or improve their employment level than older workers. One possible explanation is that older workers often have workplace- or industry-specific skills that are more specialized and harder to transfer to new workplaces.
For an aging Canadian workforce where employers frequently say they want experienced workers, this presents a challenge because experienced newcomers may still struggle to access jobs that match their expertise.
The barriers refugees face
Aside from having skills, refugees must also navigate systems that determine whether those skills are recognized and rewarded. The two biggest barriers identified by refugees were familiar ones: credential recognition and language.
Less obvious barriers mattered, too, including a lack of registered address, difficulty understanding the local labour market and child-care responsibilities.
“Refugees are rebuilding their lives in a completely new country without knowing how its systems work,” said Didenko. “Things like administrative documents or procedures can work completely differently, turning seemingly simple requirements into real barriers.”
Employment integration is therefore not only about whether refugees have the right skills, but whether they can navigate the systems that allow those skills to be recognized and used.
The refugees most likely to experience employment declines were those who were highly educated, female, mid-career and caring for children — characteristics shared by many Ukrainians currently in Canada.
However, the refugees who achieved the strongest employment outcomes were not necessarily those with the most credentials; they were those whose barriers were reduced and whose skills could be transferred most easily into the new labour market.
What this means for Canada
Canada’s current refugee policies place significant emphasis on the early stages of settlement: the emergency visa, the first job and the first year. But a year later, a refugee who starts in a survival job does not automatically move upward into employment that matches their skills and experience.
Employers can look inwards for talent, helping under-employed refugees secure professional licenses or build bridges to better integration. Small and inexpensive changes can remove major barriers, including plain-language job postings, flexible shifts, eliminating unnecessary permanent address requirements on applications or providing language support.
Governments and regulators can also target credential-bridging programs toward the groups most at risk, particularly professionals with graduate credentials, rather than relying only on broad newcomer programs.
Regulators, especially for professions that have certifications like accountants, nurses and lawyers, can build credential and experience bridges and find paths for professional recognition. This can include provisional or supervised licences.
Removing barriers benefits everyone
Employment downgrading represents lost value for Canada as well, particularly in sectors facing labour shortages, including health care and skilled professions.
Akierah Binns, a study co-author and a board member at the Toronto Centre for Learning & Development, says programs focused on bridging skills and experience can help newcomers find pathways back into employment.
“Programs like the Immigrant Women Integration Program show what bridging done right looks like. Newcomers are given practical skills, mentoring, and community placements that build confidence while opening real pathways into work and study.”
Innovative ideas can stem from these findings. For example, refugee-specific localized child care could address several barriers at once by creating employment opportunities for refugee women (especially trained teachers and educators), freeing up Ukrainian refugees to find employment, and providing language and cultural continuity for children.
Such an approach would require provincial regulators to create faster pathways for foreign-trained educators, but addressing one barrier could unlock several others.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
