A Ukrainian developer told me that working for a large outsourcing shop looked better in the eyes of her friends and family than being a freelancer. She said being a freelancer, was, in her opinion, seen as a sign you couldn't get work with a big consulting firm.
She had just become a freelancer, despite her perceived drop in status.
Being from Moldova, and working on Upwork, I understand what he means... There is a bit of distaste for freelancers because there are a lot of very cheap freelancers working on the local market (because they would not be able to find a good project on upwork) with very low quality of work. All questions go away though when you tell your family how much more money you make.
EDIT: As per sibling comment, there are two types of freelancers: very high qualified or very low qualified. The general public usually hears more about the low qualified ones though.
Hard to tell. I hired many people on Upwork, and i can say that there are quite some mid-tier ones. Charging about $15 an hour and in general, worth their money - for example, overally good but with English so poor they can't get high paying customers themselves.
It may be because she is a novice developer and not immersed much into the IT world, and not highly qualified yet. With the non-IT people 'freelancer' might look like a nice word for 'unemployed'. Much higher status of an experienced freelancer is undeniable (a $4000 freelancer is solid upper class - able to afford multiple full time home staff - in most of Ukraine)
She had just become a freelancer, despite her perceived drop in status.