Олег Онопрієнко Історії 1 May 2025, 09:00

"150 reviews — and no answers." How relocated Ukrainian IT workers live in Georgia, the Czech Republic, France and the UK: difficulties, experience and the price of security in exile

Russia’s full-scale invasion forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes and seek a safer life abroad. According to the Center for Economic Strategy, as of the end of November 2024, about 5.2 million refugees remained outside Ukraine. Among them are IT industry professionals, who until recently developed the Ukrainian technology sector, and are now trying to find their place in the new realities. dev.ua spoke with IT professionals who talked about adaptation, cultural contrasts, the peculiarities of local labor markets and the challenges they face when looking for a job.

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"150 reviews — and no answers." How relocated Ukrainian IT workers live in Georgia, the Czech Republic, France and the UK: difficulties, experience and the price of security in exile

Russia’s full-scale invasion forced millions of Ukrainians to leave their homes and seek a safer life abroad. According to the Center for Economic Strategy, as of the end of November 2024, about 5.2 million refugees remained outside Ukraine. Among them are IT industry professionals, who until recently developed the Ukrainian technology sector, and are now trying to find their place in the new realities. dev.ua spoke with IT professionals who talked about adaptation, cultural contrasts, the peculiarities of local labor markets and the challenges they face when looking for a job.

Georgia. "The IT market is almost nonexistent, so it's not an option if you need to change jobs"

Olga Yarovinska, a product designer from Dnipro, was forced to leave her home, like millions of other Ukrainians, after the full-scale invasion began. First, she evacuated her children to Western Ukraine, and in April 2022, her family left for Georgia. When choosing a country for temporary living, Olga was guided by practical things - she had an apartment in Tbilisi, which allowed her to continue working remotely for a Ukrainian company and maintain a stable standard of living.

However, Georgia turned out to be not the best place to stay with children for a long time. When the eldest son fell ill, the local healthcare system turned out to be too weak. In addition, the language barrier and the lack of choice of schools with an understandable language of instruction also became a problem.

“We left Georgia in June 2022 because the level of medicine was not up to par — my eldest son got sick, but the children's hospital had only one department for everyone, regardless of diagnosis, which increased the likelihood of getting sick with something else,” Olga summed up her experience of living in Georgia.

Czech Republic. “My income increased almost threefold when I changed from a Ukrainian company to a Czech one”

In June, Olga and her children moved to the Czech Republic. There, unlike Georgia, other prospects opened up — the country has a stable IT market, the language is close to Ukrainian, and the mentality is understandable and acceptable. Olga was able to learn Czech and adapt quickly. Within a month, she had several interviews and received an offer from the company where she wanted to work. Her income after moving from a Ukrainian IT company to a Czech one increased almost threefold (after taxes).

"For me, living in the Czech Republic is more of a plus than a minus. The IT labor market is interesting, there are many opportunities to work in large companies, the language is similar (I speak Czech fluently in less than three years in the country). I have found many local friends, and so have my children. There is an opportunity to maintain and even improve the standard of living, I travel a lot. The only minus I can attribute to the fact that there is no support from relatives, because they stayed in Ukraine," Olga told dev.ua

In her new position, she felt a qualitative difference: stable contracts, a clear structure, five weeks of paid vacation, and from 2023, even unlimited vacation, which became a sign of trust and a mature corporate culture for her.

Despite her close ties to Ukraine, Olga has no plans to return. The reason is not only the war and danger in her native region, but also the limited opportunities for professional development in Ukraine. Her children are already fully integrated into the Czech environment, the youngest is studying Czech and English. So for their family, the Czech Republic has become not just a temporary refuge, but a new home.

Software Engineer Andriy Buy shared his experience of living in Prague. A few days before the full-scale invasion, Andriy went to the Czech Republic, as he already had an offer from a local company. The Aytivets encountered a number of unpleasant features of local life: xenophobia, poor medicine, and high household expenses.

"In the Czech Republic, after receiving a permanent residence permit, you can switch to an ICO (like our FOP) and pay not 20-40% of taxes, but around 10-15%. Many local offices only work on FOPs and that's why. Many Europeans also live in Prague, because in their conventional Amsterdams and Viennas, taxes are even higher," said the Software Engineer.

Among the advantages, the IT expert highlights: the excellent location of the Czech Republic in the center of Europe, a rich Ukrainian community, good public transport. For Andriy, an important factor was the fact that at his current place of work everyone speaks English fluently, which cannot be said about the local population. In conversations between Czechs, phrases about “Ukrainians who take jobs”, “working for pennies” or “not wanting to integrate” are occasionally heard.

When asked what incentive would force Andriy to return to Ukraine, the IT worker answered quite succinctly: "The disappearance of dew from the face of the earth."

France. "In case of dismissal, the state will pay money that is comfortable enough for basic living"

Before the start of the full-scale war, on February 24, 2022, Iryna Hrynyk lived and worked in Lviv. Iryna had a job, experience in QA and project management, and at that time was engaged to a Frenchman. This was the main reason for her move to Paris. Iryna notes that two main things affect the comfort of your life: salary and language skills.

"In France, IT professionals don't have high salaries, they are either average or slightly above average. Therefore, you shouldn't expect any sky-high amounts here. And of course, visitors, even without knowledge of French, receive less attractive offers than local specialists," the IT professional notes.

From the first weeks, the IT student felt how important language skills are in France. At the time of moving, her French level was at A1, so even completing basic documents was a challenge for Iryna. Almost no one speaks English here, even in the capital.

“Now I have level B1 — this is a fairly comfortable level for living,” said Iryna.

Life in France has its pros and cons. On the one hand, there is strong social support, a good healthcare system, delicious food, quality wine, and nature.

The downsides are high taxes (Iryna pays about 30%), difficult integration without the language, and very long waits for doctor's appointments. French society is quite closed - it's not easy to find friends among the locals, especially without good knowledge of the language.

The first year after moving, Iryna still worked remotely for a Ukrainian company. Then she decided to take a break — not only because of adaptation, but also because of professional burnout. Aitivytsa considered job options in France, but did not actively search. She often faced rejections — the French labor market is quite conservative.

"If you don't have a piece of paper about the appropriate education, HR won't even consider your resume. Since I'm a switcher, a lot of companies simply ignore my CV, even though I had 7 years of experience in both QA and PM. Several times I managed to get an invitation for an interview, but usually HR was incredibly surprised by my switcher, for them I was like an exotic animal, which is very, very interesting, but so far does not inspire trust," Iryna shared her experience.

During a break in her job search, Iryna had an opportunity that she hadn't even considered at first: a vacancy opened up at her husband's company. The employer didn't require knowledge of French and focused more on skills than diplomas. Despite her doubts (after all, not everyone is comfortable working with their partner), the Ukrainian decided to give it a try. And, as it turned out, it was not in vain - Iryna has been working at this company for over two years.

“The interview was conducted by the HR and my future boss — the hour flew by, we had a great conversation and left. I was very surprised by such an easy approach — in Ukraine I went through the circles of hell, and here the interview looked like a heartfelt conversation. But the interview with HR corresponded to the classic French approach — no diploma and no knowledge of the language, plus a rather complicated project. For the first time in my life, the recruiter didn’t like me that much. But after 2 weeks I received an offer. I hesitated to accept it, because I really needed a break. But at the same time, I understood that I wouldn’t have such a second chance, especially since the company was also paying for a French teacher for me, so I agreed,” Ms. Hrynyk summed up her job search experience.

According to Iryna, the IT market in France is noticeably different from the Ukrainian one. Everything is much slower here, there are more hierarchies, and rarely does anyone speak directly to management. For example, Iryna communicates directly with her service center, while her colleagues do not. Salary increases are limited — 4–6%, a maximum of 8–10%. Salaries in IT here are generally not as high as one might expect, especially for beginners without French. It should be borne in mind that when hiring for a job, the amount of your salary is indicated before taxes. In addition, it is not customary to work 100% remotely here — a maximum of 2 days from home, the rest of the time you have to be in the office. But at the same time, people really value their personal time: 1–2-hour lunches with a glass of wine or beer, no overtime without additional pay, vacations up to 35 days a year.

"In the event of dismissal, the company loses quite a lot of money (such laws to protect employees are in force throughout France). Therefore, if there is a need to say goodbye to an employee, they try to come to an agreement, the employee leaves on his own and the company pays a certain amount of compensation," the IT worker reported.

Today, Iryna does not plan to return to Ukraine, as her life is now connected with France — not only through work or everyday life, but also through personal life.

Spain. "Emotionally we were burned out, still waiting for the war to end so we could go home"

Nazar, a Lead Full Stack Developer from Kyiv, had no plans to emigrate before the full-scale invasion began: neither for professional nor personal reasons. However, after February 24, 2022, he and his wife decided to temporarily leave the country — primarily for the safety of their three young children.

The first stop was Catalonia. The family did not plan to stay long, constantly living with the thought of a quick return to Ukraine. However, time passed, the older children went to preschool, and they had to think more seriously about the future.

"I continued to work as an individual entrepreneur for a Ukrainian company, but I was laid off because the customer from Norway wanted to minimize risks. I didn't dare to look for a job locally at that time, so I continued to look for a job in Ukraine. I found one, got a job, but a year later our entire team (not only ours) was laid off. I had to look for a job again," said Nazar.

This time, Nazar did not want to consider only Ukrainian companies, but the Spanish market did not offer any prospects. Salaries were significantly lower than Ukrainian ones, taxes were much higher, most companies worked for the domestic market, and international opportunities were concentrated mainly in Barcelona with low rates.

“We were emotionally exhausted, still waiting for the end of the war to return home. But we decided that Catalan for the children at school would make it difficult for them to study, and the British School with English was quite expensive, so we decided to move to Britain, where we would be able to communicate freely and the children would learn English,” Nazar said about his decision to move to Britain.

Britain turned out to be more understandable in a linguistic and cultural sense. The IT market, especially in London, turned out to be much more attractive: higher salaries, active presence of international companies, more vacancies. At the same time, the tax burden in the country is also significant - up to 42%. Another serious problem was the cost of living: renting housing in London is sky-high, so spending one and a half to two hours on the road every day is a standard situation.

"Right now, I'm ending my cooperation with my previous company and looking for a job locally, so I'll have to check how good the IT market is in practice. One thing is for sure - there are more than enough vacancies," the Lead Full Stack Developer concluded.

Great Britain. "It's exhausting when you fill out an application: registration on a local portal, 150 questions from the employer, cover letter, cv. A lot of time wasted, after which you get rejections one after another, without any feedback"

Anna Lazurko, a motion designer from Kharkiv, also found herself in the UK. Life in the city under constant shelling and the worsening anxiety caused by mobilization and the general situation in the country forced her to seek temporary refuge abroad. The choice fell on the UK not because of the dream of the "British dream", but simply because Anna's relative had already moved there.

In the new country, Anna and her family are trying to adapt, but the third month of job searching is becoming emotionally more difficult. Not a single offer has been received for more than 150 applications in her specialty. The designer has submitted more than 50 more applications for any unskilled job and again to no avail. The Job Centre does not provide any interviews with employers, recruiters ignore candidates without local experience, and agencies are mainly looking for leads or seniors - not even from her profile.

The process of applying for jobs is exhausting: endless registrations, tests, questionnaires, mandatory cover letters - all this takes time and energy. In response - silence or automatic rejections, without the slightest feedback. It is demoralizing, even despite the understanding that at least her children do not hear the explosions.

Anna is still holding on — she works on two Ukrainian part-time projects, which at least helps her not to fall into despair. But the local market looks harsh: there are almost no job seekers here, the qualification requirements are strict, salaries are average, and the list of expectations from candidates is maximum. British companies are reluctant to consider even those who are already in the country, not to mention remote specialists.

Life in Britain has its pros: cheap food, nice people, a sense of security. But the cons are also obvious: an expensive and inefficient transport system, bureaucratic access to the job market, poor healthcare, and the almost universal requirement for certificates, licenses, local experience, and a driving license.

Despite all the difficulties, Anna does not plan to stay forever. Her dream is to return to Ukraine as soon as the shelling ends and it becomes possible to live at home without fear again.