What, if anything, has changed?
I asked Ukrainians in Austria today, 10 months into this crisis, how their lives have (and haven't) changed.
This morning I decided to ask my Ukrainians in Austria Telegram group (currently 2,089 members) how their lives have (and haven’t) changed for the better since we last talked about how they are all getting on here. It is of course always a dangerous and certainly not scientific exercise to poll a few individuals to speak for many, but trends usually emerge, and they, I believe, are important.
In short, the message was pretty simple: the same problems that existed months ago continue today. I learned a few new things too, such as a problem that social payments are not being paid out on time, but rather retrospectively, with sometimes a delay of several months. I also learned that Ukrainian children will be subject to the “MIKA-D” exam, a test of their German language skills, designed for all non-native speakers in Austrian schools, on the basis of which it will be decided if the children may pass to the next grade level next year. You can imagine how mothers feel about the prospects of their 3rd graders having to possibly repeat 3rd grade for the 3rd time in 3 years. Yes, you read that correctly.
Transportation
“Tanechka, public transportation. One trip to the gynaecologist (this particular mom is currently six months pregnant) costs €2.50 in one direction; a visit to the pediatrician costs the same. I would even buy a monthly pass, but not for the asking price, which is the same as what they charge Austrians with full-time jobs, because I cannot justify the expense, but if we had it, I would be able to go to Vienna with my child and to nearby towns, and not sit at home as we do now.”
“Basically, nothing changed. The problem with public transportation being very expensive for us remains. I use it, because my German class reimburses us, but the others don’t go anywhere. We bought tickets for the kids so they are mobile. But for adults to pay €80 (Lower Austria) each month for a ticket it is unrealistic.”
“I have the same situation with ÖIF reimbursing the cost of transportation to German classes. The train pass costs €97.30 per month, but AMS and ÖIF send me to each other. It has been two months and I haven’t been able to get reimbursed yet.”
Housing
“It got worse in that we have to pay for the apartment, in my case, I paid in advance, but the landlord changed, and the new one doesn’t issue a new contract, I pay for all the utilities, I pay €174 in maintenance fees, I paid for two months, the bill for January already arrived, but Caritas doesn’t pay the money on time (our appointment was two and a half weeks ago*, and there is no guarantee they will pay the amount, and we still don’t have a new contract, it’s very stressful. Today I had to give my older child €10 for a school trip to the theater, the younger one needed €25 for photos in kindergarten, they said it was mandatory. My child played soccer and broke his big toe. We tried treating it at home, that didn’t work, went to the hospital three times, each time we have to pay for transport, and how much everything cost we had to buy at the pharmacy…there is no stability, it’s very hard to plan, thankful for the child benefit money, at least we are in an apartment.”
*I clarified with Ukrainian refugees the payment system. They have regular appointments with Caritas in Vienna when they have to show up in person and show their paperwork, confirming their status. But the actual payment takes place at a later date, onto their bank accounts, and this can take some time. I have been told of delays of several weeks and even months in some cases.
“Our rental contract will end soon and it is a really big problem to find a new apartment due to our financial constraints. I am probably writing things from the realm of fantasy, but if they paid more money in social support like in Germany, particularly to those Austrians who have housed Ukrainians, there would be far fewer problems.”
“Huge thanks to the Austrian family with whom we live. We are able to go to German classes via ÖIF.”
Cars
“A big question for those of us who arrived here by car is will we be allowed to drive with Ukrainian license plates after March 2023? We don’t know how we will pay for parking in Vienna after this date, and most of us cannot sell our cars here. I am really worried and hope they will come up with a solution for us here.”
Money
“Every time we wait so long for the payments from Caritas, and we have to pay for everything in our lives on time, for the apartment, utilities, transportation. Last time the payment took three weeks to arrive, now we have been waiting for a month already.”
“Vienna promised us a payment on December 15. We still haven’t received it. I wrote them an email a week ago. Silence…”
“One positive — they finally increased the amount of payments in Lower Austria to the level of Vienna.”
“The next appointment is on March 15, and now the payments will come only for January, which means the next money may not come until April, so there is a delay of more than two months, and I have to find money again to pay for everything (apartment, travel, services). I’m not talking about food and necessities.”
“On the plus side, I received Familienbeihilfe (child support), I can afford to pay for lunch now in the kindergarten so my child can now stay after 12pm and be involved in the afternoon activities, thanks to everyone who helped in our town at Christmastime, so much depends on the human factor!”
“I read that they increased the payments, but in Burgenland they did not change. Although prices are the same everywhere…”
“Indeed, child support has significantly improved the financial situation of families with children, but there is still a very urgent issue with pensioners. The authorities are now asking them for a certificate of the amount of pension they receive in Ukraine, in order to reduce they social payments (at best €260 per month, e.g. Wien) by this amount. I have already come across this question several times on Telegram and Facebook, so this is a very relevant issue.”
“Yes, they increased the payments in Lower Austria, but only from January. The Red Cross really helps us with groceries once a week. Of course some are expired. But sometimes they give us milk, sugar, flour, which is great.”
“We are in Lower Austria, they never increased the payments. We get Red Cross groceries once every two weeks. To take a bus in one direction we pay anywhere from €0.90 to €2.50. It depends on the driver. Same for the train (€1.40, €1.80, €1.90).”
“My husband applied for the Familienbeihilfe (child benefit) via his work but it is until March 2023. Will it be automatically extended or will we have to reapply then and wait four months again?”
Welcome culture (or lack thereof)
“You probably meant to say that each Ukrainian survives as he/she can. When we called the hot line in Vienna, a young woman with an annoyed voice told us that there is a waiting list for housing for cancer patients. That is shocking. We called in September, and the people had arrived in March! The problem is not that wonderful Austria was not ready to welcome us. The problem is that she is still not ready to do so.”
“The Austrians in our social circle are very tolerant and conscientious. We are very grateful to Austria, but we want to go home! Ukraine will win!”
School
“Many children received invitation letters to school or kindergarten, but the educational institutions do not know yet if they will receive state funding for 2023-24 for Ukrainian kids.”
“There will be a test of their German language skills at the end of January or February, but the applications for gymnasium are due by the end of January. So it would appear some children will remain in the same grade for the third year in a row, in the same grade they were in when they arrived from Ukraine.”
“School and kindergarten is ok. The kids will take tests, and on the basis of these tests, some kids will move to the next grade, and others will repeat the year.”
“If nothing changes, my son will repeat fifth grade for the third time.”
“My first grader is in first grade for the second time. She is in an ordinary Austrian school. She is taking extra German classes online, and no one told us about any exams. So far no one has said anything to us about having to repeat first grade again, but I don’t know what will happen at the end of the year. In December they gave a little report, everything was ok. She is the only Ukrainian kid, I hope they will let her go to second grade.”
“Everyone who doesn’t pass the MIKA-D test will be forced to repeat the year, or even for a third time. They may not even tell you about the test in certain schools. I wrote about that, asked about it, if there is a proposed solution for Ukrainian kids.”
“My child attends an ordinary school in Vienna. It is great. A friendly class of German and English speakers. There are seven Ukrainian kids in the class. There are now free swimming lessons once a week. This week my child passed the German test.”
Mothers of children due to start school next year are nervous. They followed the instructions, sent all the forms, and received a form response “we will contact you”.
Mothers of older teens write me in great detail and much agony about how they are so worried their smart kids who have been taking extra classes in foreign languages and IT in Ukraine may not be accepted to gymnasium/HTL in Austria, and then what? How will the path to university be then? In those cases, I try and connect them with volunteers with hearts of gold who have the patience to give some valuable advice on navigating the tricky Austrian school system, especially for older children.
Work
“A really urgent question about work is what will happen to those who are legally employed but their blue cards will expire in March 2023, and that means also their permission to work issued by AMS will also expire? Employers do not know what to do, and AMS says that you will receive new blue cards, and then you will re-apply for permission to work. But I fear many may be simply fired if their employers cannot be bothered to go through this process again.”
“The problem is AMS demands it the new paperwork, calls the employer, and the employer will just fire the Ukrainian. We don’t know what to do. It isn’t clear when the new blue cards will be issued (until March 2024 per EU directive).”
“My husband works. They gave him in November permission to work for one year, so that is valid. There should be a date on the paper that was issued.”
“It’s hard to find a job because for health reasons I cannot take a physically demanding job, and to find a professional job, they all require excellent German. Excellent English isn’t enough.”
Medicine
“I guess everyone knows by now how long you have to wait for a Termin. For example, the child gets sick, a high temperature, a cough, and the next available appointment is in three weeks. Is that not ridiculous? It is also really difficult to manage to make an appointment to see a specialist. I would not like to have such a system in Ukraine. Maybe, Ukraine doesn’t really need that Europe…but it is a rhetorical question, of course.”
“The most positive thing I can say about Austria is the medical system. I am a diabetic. All of my medicines are taken care of. I could not dream of this in Ukraine. I had to pay for everything there myself except for insulin. Here everything is covered, including even the expensive machine for measuring my sugar. In a small town, where I was with my mom, they took care of everything fast. Yes, sometimes you have to wait for a few months. But some of our Ukrainians criticise medicine in Austria because it is common in Ukraine to unfortunately often prescribe more medicine than is necessary.”
Life in Ukraine for those who stayed
“Everything depends on the region and Russia’s actions. Some stayed behind on account of ageing parents, sick relatives, husbands, work, and other situations which prevented them from leaving. They try to survive however possible.”
“Of a population of 45 million, approximately 7-8 million Ukrainians left. You will get a variety of responses because that is how it is: our country is large, multiethnic, and varied. From my small hometown, which is being hit by missile strikes for the seventh time, residents are sitting now, just like everyone else, without electricity under constant air raid sirens. Only a few people left.”
“Of my family and friends who stayed behind in Kyiv, some cannot leave because they are men. Some don’t want to leave their homes no matter what. Often there is no electricity or heat, the room temperature in the apartments is +16C, the elevators often do not work. If someone has a job right now in Kyiv that is real happiness. The prices on some products and many goods are now higher than even in Austria (but not for everything). They sometimes cut off the electricity for hours due to missile attacks and the times are always changing. For that reason, there is also often no water in tall apartment blocks. A friend is a cook, he hasn’t had work since spring. A friend worked in an online shop, but now she only works by the hour, and they only pay for those hours when you are online (due to electricity cuts). My job doesn’t exist at all right now, for example (real estate).”
I would like in the coming days to gather grassroots contacts of volunteers helping on the ground in Ukraine, but verified accounts, with a track record of showing and sharing what they are doing. I will think a bit about how best to approach this, and then share the information here. I know it can feel weird to send money to a PayPal account you only saw on Twitter, but I really believe it is folks like this, young Ukrainians working now full-time as volunteers, who are keeping many people, especially the elderly, alive, fed, and clothed this winter. I keep thinking about no matter how challenging things are sometimes here in Europe, they are surely much worse across many parts of Ukraine right now.
In personal news, my return to work lasted all of a day. It wasn’t the right fit for me, and I am now luckily at the age when I can recognise those things quickly and react. I am trying to learn from my mistakes, and ask myself the tough questions, to see if I can creatively find a way to earn some income while also feeling like I did good and productive things and added value, etc etc. I have been so incredibly lucky this past year to work on something intensely which I am passionate about. I do not take that for granted.
Thank you for reading and for you continued support. I think these updates from time to time are important, to take the temperature, ask the Ukrainians I have contact with how they are all doing, what is on their minds, so we don’t automatically assume no news is good news, or vice versa.
My little grocery envelope waiting list is quite small now, which is great. I was able to send out several dozen cards over the past week or so. I have been directing more applicants to the website, and I also received dozens of cards by mail. Thank you.
Sorry the job didn't work out, but hopefully something better will come along.