Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has many faces. One of them is Ukrainian women’s entry into the labor market in Poland and Italy. The project will analyze the legal and institutional aspects of this phenomenon concerning the domestic works sector and agricultural sector and is carried out by the Center of Migration Research, University of Warsaw in co-operation with Unitelma Sapienza University in Rome. The study adopts an analytical framework of migration infrastructure. The project will answer how existing and newly introduced legal regulations affect the inclusion of refugee women in the labor market, how institutional arrangements affect working conditions in the domestic labor and agricultural sectors, and what employment strategies are adopted by Ukrainian women in these contexts. The project involves examining and comparing the legal, institutional and individual barriers that prevent Ukrainian women from finding jobs that match their skills, as well as learning about possible solutions to overcome these barriers. In particular, it will identify and compare gaps in migration infrastructure, the needs of refugee women, and propose an appropriate tool for meeting these needs by policymakers and civil society. The researchers plan to include in the analysis the extent to which newly arrived women use pre-war networks to enter labor markets in both countries, and to capture and compare the nature of the labor market entry practices of "new" refugee and migrant women in Poland and Italy.

The project is funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) under the "Intervention Grants" scheme, and is headed by Dr. Marta Kindler. A key aspect of the ongoing work in 2023 will be the applicability of the results obtained, especially in the process of creating solutions in the area of employment policy or immigration policy. In addition to developing new theoretical knowledge, the Polish-Italian team intends to undertake several "intervention" activities – it will not only provide recommendations, but also disseminate the results of the research through various channels, as well as involve labor market organizations in the process of economic integration of refugee women in the two countries. An important outcome of the work is also the development of a new economic model that captures the skills, qualifications and aspirations of migrant women in labor markets.