Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constitutes the greatest threat to peace and security in Europe since the end of the Cold War. The large-scale invasion caused the destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing over 6.5 million Ukrainians to flee their homes to seek safety, protection and assistance in neighbouring countries. At the same time, 14.6 million Ukrainians remained in need of humanitarian assistance on the territory of Ukraine, and more than 3.5 million Ukrainians were displaced from the war-affected areas to other regions of Ukraine.
For Romania, assisting such a large number of beneficiaries of a form of international protection was a major challenge, and inter-institutional and public-private cooperation mechanisms were created to ensure integrated assistance to all categories of Ukrainian refugees. Romania was transforming from a country of emigration into one of immigration, and everyone’s attention was focused on public policies and strategies that had to be adapted to the new situation. And if in the first 2 years, the government initiatives for the assistance of Ukrainian refugees were met with empathy by the Romanian population, from the 3rd year onwards there was a wear and tear in the intensity of the help with which the community came to meet the needs of the refugees. At the same time, the financial assistance granted by the Romanian Government recorded very long delays in payment, which led many refugees to become financially self-sufficient, including by setting up new businesses, expanding existing ones in Romania or effectively relocating businesses from Ukraine to Romania.
This study aimed to learn about the opportunities and difficulties faced by Ukrainian refugees who have opened or want to open a business in Romania, as well as to identify the best ways in which the public and private sectors can support these initiatives. In this sense, the first 3 sections of the study aimed to understand the profile of the Ukrainian refugee on Romanian territory, from the perspective of the dynamics of the main indicators regarding their registration and demographic characteristics, access to the labor market as an employee or employer, assistance received to facilitate access to the Romanian business market or the existence of a Ukrainian business community in Romania.
The activity of documenting official statistics and data was essential for the analysis of the opportunities and difficulties faced by Ukrainian refugees who have opened or want to open a business in Romania, presented in section 4. The actual data collection was carried out by applying a questionnaire with 21 questions to a number of 123 Ukrainian refugees. Subsequently, the data obtained were detailed in 10 interviews with Ukrainian entrepreneurs, as well as 5 interviews with civil society organizations. The results of the case study reflect that the main difficulties faced by Ukrainian refugees who want to open a business in Romania are the language barrier, lack of money, lack of public information on starting a business, difficulty in dialogue with public authorities and their rigid attitude. On the other hand, the motivations are diverse in nature, starting from improving living conditions and ending with increasing self-esteem or the desire to integrate into local communities.
In order to enrich the conclusions obtained from data processing and formulate recommendations on improving the assistance provided to Ukrainian refugees who want to become/are entrepreneurs in Romania, good practices were presented regarding the integration of Ukrainian entrepreneurs on the business market in the Czech Republic and Poland. The resulting recommendations may contribute to improving the strategies of public authorities dedicated to the integration of Ukrainian refugees in general and facilitating access to the information necessary for opening and maintaining a business in Romania, in particular.
STUDIU ANTREPRENORIAT UCRAINENI IN RO