[Eug894]

That is because they are doing useless jobs or work which is not yet in demand here. If they invested in education or some equipment which were raising in demand, they would be fine. Many of ordinary workers in Ukraine emigrate to the EU actually - even more would do that if the EU did not establish those discriminating boundaries with visas : )

But the main reason of their poor life is corrupted government which have been here for many years and which didn't give them opportunity to invest properly (not everyone can be a programmer, I admit). We had several hyper-inflation periods with banks going bankrupt, with too complicated legislation no one seriously followed, unfair privatization of former state property, policemen killing and robbing people, etc.

...€2.32 for 1 kg of potatoes in Norway?! I got a millionaire idea.