Sustainability 2021, 13, 8337. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158337 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article Adaptation Strategies of Migrant Workers from Ukraine during the COVID-19 Pandemic Paweł Churski 1, *, Hanna Kroczak 2 , Marta Łuczak 2 , Olena Shelest-Szumilas 3 and Marcin Woźniak 4 1 Faculty of Human Geography and Planning, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 61-712 Poznań, Poland 2 Observatory of Economy and Labour Market of the Poznan Agglomeration, 61-727 Poznań, Poland; h.kroczak@cdzdm.pl (H.K.); m.luczak@cdzdm.pl (M.Ł.) 3 Poznań University of Economics and Business, 61-875 Poznań, Poland; olena.shelest-szumilas@ue.poznan.pl 4 Faculty of Human Geography and Planning, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 61-712 Poznań, Poland; woz@amu.edu.pl * Correspondence: chur@amu.edu.pl Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching social and economic consequences. They are visible particularly in the functioning of local labour markets, affecting less privileged groups such as migrant workers, in a specific way. Here, our analysis aims to identify the strategies of ad- aptation of Ukrainian economic migrants to the changing situation in the local labour market in the Poznań agglomeration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis relies on the results from quantitative research on changes in the demand for labour and adjustment of competence of immi- grants to the Poznań agglomeration labour market throughout the pandemic and in the perspective of the nearest future, as well as on qualitative research conducted using the IDI (in-depth interviews) technique, carried out via the purposive sampling of 30 economically active Ukrainian migrant workers. The identified adaptation strategies are organised according to the assumptions of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital(s). The capital of the researched group with respect to the labour mar- ket is treated as both the potential and resources the immigrants offer, produce, apply, and mutually convert in the implementation of their own adaptation strategies to the changing situation of the labour market. We extracted eight types of migrant adaptation strategies with respect to the labour market. These strategies differ in terms of objectives, resources, time perspectives, and other factors considered to be important from migrants’ perspectives. On the basis of interviews, we were able to assess the robustness of these strategies in view of economic shocks and identify the process of capital conversion and exchange. Keywords: local labour market; migrant workers; Pierre Bourdieu’s capital(s); adaptation strategies; COVID-19; Poznań agglomeration; Poland 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a global health crisis which has quickly led to economic shocks, including those affecting the labour market. This, in turn, has brought about an unprecedented global job crisis [1]. Successive waves of the pandemic, and the serious economic and social challenges they have entailed, have made it difficult to fore- cast future development trajectories [2,3]. In these circumstances, what becomes espe- cially crucial is the monitoring of the changes occurring in the labour market. Conse- quences of this new situation in the labour market are subject to analysis in many coun- tries [4,5,6]. What is important is that from its onset, the pandemic’s economic and social effects have been characterized by definite social segmentation and spatial variation, which has also been observed in the labour market [7,8,9]. In particular, this situation ad- versely affects migrant workers [10], who belong to less privileged groups in the world of Citation: Churski, P.; Kroczak, H.; Łuczak, M.; Shelest-Szumilas, O.; Woźniak, M. Adaptation Strategies of Migrant Workers from Ukraine during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8337. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158337 Academic Editors: Juan Carlos Rodríguez Cohard and Antonio Vázquez Barquero Received: 16 May 2021 Accepted: 20 July 2021 Published: 26 July 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Li- censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (http://crea- tivecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).