At various events I was introduced as a Ukrainian from Crimea. This is supposedly popular nowadays. The truth is that I have Ukrainian citizenship, but I also have Russian. I was influenced by my parents, from whom I inherited it, as well as Russian literature and the whole culture. Like many refugees from eastern Ukraine.
Russians and Ukrainians
My personality will not change because I stand against Putin and his aggression. I assume that Slovak Hungarians feel the same way. They don't necessarily like Viktor Orban, and they don't have to identify with his policies. But it doesn't change their identity. Or it could apply to the Slovaks. They can also dislike their politicians and agree with them. By the way, I am not happy with the Slovak government either. I am not happy with the statistics and forecasts, especially in the economy, education and health care. But I'm not going to leave. One of the reasons is my children, for whom Slovakia is their homeland, their fatherland. I will simply do everything for my children. Just like hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian mothers fleeing the war in Ukraine do. If we understand their motivation and help them and their children, we will gain a great deal in them for Slovakia. And we will be able to largely reverse the already mentioned negative projections and statistics.
Education
I have the feeling that in the last three months I have been meeting so concentrated with the scientific and economic elite of Ukraine that in terms of the number of meetings it is more than I have had in the last 10 years. On their part, it has been an unplanned move to neighboring territory, and the reason has almost always been to save the children. I am sorry to hear that military classes are being considered, but I hear much less about the possibility of using summer months for preparatory courses for Ukrainians in schools, which would allow them to integrate into the school environment from September with as little strain on the Slovak students as possible. I am the director of a language school for foreigners, which just in May 2022 successfully completed a project to prepare a series of textbooks for children of foreigners and compatriots www.slokia.sk. We can call them textbooks only after the approval of Slovak as a foreign and second language in the school system of Slovakia, which the people in charge realized only in connection with the war. Unfortunately, we have been pointing this out for many years, and for many years not only foreigners, but also hundreds of thousands of compatriots around the world have been struggling with this.
Health Care
Especially in the detention camps and warehouses, I have met mothers who don't rush to work. They depend on social benefits and even if they have children, they have no incentive to earn extra money. This is because of the language barrier or because they are just afraid. Interestingly, all of the issues we discussed together were about social and health benefits for children. I found that the easiest way to convince these women not to be afraid and to go to work is through government health insurance. Both the mother and her children will qualify for it if the mother gets a job. That's a great incentive. In the temporary shelter, Ukrainian women and their children only get emergency medical care, and that's not enough for the children. They should receive it to the fullest extent.
The Economic Future and Money
The influx of refugees could boost our economy, but Slovakia has "fallen asleep" compared to Poland and the Czech Republic. Poland is actively accepting refugees, and Poland's GDP grew 8.5% in Q1 2022. According to Oxford economists, they will continue to benefit, with annualized GDP growth of more than 1.7%. We still have a chance to attract workers from Ukraine as well as other war-affected areas. Even if we have lower wages, we can attract them by being hospitable to their children, which is why they are mostly here.
Russians and Ukrainians
My personality will not change because I stand against Putin and his aggression. I assume that Slovak Hungarians feel the same way. They don't necessarily like Viktor Orban, and they don't have to identify with his policies. But it doesn't change their identity. Or it could apply to the Slovaks. They can also dislike their politicians and agree with them. By the way, I am not happy with the Slovak government either. I am not happy with the statistics and forecasts, especially in the economy, education and health care. But I'm not going to leave. One of the reasons is my children, for whom Slovakia is their homeland, their fatherland. I will simply do everything for my children. Just like hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian mothers fleeing the war in Ukraine do. If we understand their motivation and help them and their children, we will gain a great deal in them for Slovakia. And we will be able to largely reverse the already mentioned negative projections and statistics.
Education
I have the feeling that in the last three months I have been meeting so concentrated with the scientific and economic elite of Ukraine that in terms of the number of meetings it is more than I have had in the last 10 years. On their part, it has been an unplanned move to neighboring territory, and the reason has almost always been to save the children. I am sorry to hear that military classes are being considered, but I hear much less about the possibility of using summer months for preparatory courses for Ukrainians in schools, which would allow them to integrate into the school environment from September with as little strain on the Slovak students as possible. I am the director of a language school for foreigners, which just in May 2022 successfully completed a project to prepare a series of textbooks for children of foreigners and compatriots www.slokia.sk. We can call them textbooks only after the approval of Slovak as a foreign and second language in the school system of Slovakia, which the people in charge realized only in connection with the war. Unfortunately, we have been pointing this out for many years, and for many years not only foreigners, but also hundreds of thousands of compatriots around the world have been struggling with this.
Health Care
Especially in the detention camps and warehouses, I have met mothers who don't rush to work. They depend on social benefits and even if they have children, they have no incentive to earn extra money. This is because of the language barrier or because they are just afraid. Interestingly, all of the issues we discussed together were about social and health benefits for children. I found that the easiest way to convince these women not to be afraid and to go to work is through government health insurance. Both the mother and her children will qualify for it if the mother gets a job. That's a great incentive. In the temporary shelter, Ukrainian women and their children only get emergency medical care, and that's not enough for the children. They should receive it to the fullest extent.
The Economic Future and Money
The influx of refugees could boost our economy, but Slovakia has "fallen asleep" compared to Poland and the Czech Republic. Poland is actively accepting refugees, and Poland's GDP grew 8.5% in Q1 2022. According to Oxford economists, they will continue to benefit, with annualized GDP growth of more than 1.7%. We still have a chance to attract workers from Ukraine as well as other war-affected areas. Even if we have lower wages, we can attract them by being hospitable to their children, which is why they are mostly here.
Current articles by Alona Kurotova are also available at dennikn.sk