Valeriya Lyulko was partner in a business with two others in Kyiv
before last year, helping foreign companies including Paramount
Global and Hasbro Inc. to license products in Ukraine. One business
partner went to fight, one stayed in Ukraine to keep the company
afloat, and Lyulko left to take her son, now 12, to safety. Paramount
arranged a job for her in Germany.
While Germans have been very kind, the country is not Lyulko’s dream destination. She’s still getting used to filling out paper forms and having to check her mailbox for post, after Ukraine’s hyper-digitalized government services. And she’s not a fan of Germany’s stratified school system. Even so, she’s trying to convert her refugee document, which expires next year, into a more permanent work visa.
“People who figured out the work situation in Germany, in the Netherlands, in the UK or, like, in any European country, they more or less are planning to stay where they are at this point,” says Lyulko. Asked if she planned to go home, the 42-year-old said there still were too many open questions. “I honestly don’t know,” Lyulko said, adding that most of those returning speak only Ukrainian or Russian, and are therefore struggling to find work and integrate.
(Text by Marc Champion and Daryna Krasnolutska)
Rétablir l'original