Return of Labour Migrants to Serbia: Realistic Expectations or Wishful Thinking? (original) (raw)
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Return of Labour Migrants to Serbia: Realistic Expectations or Wishful Thinking? *1
Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology, 2022
Serbia has traditionally been a country with a high emigration rate. Numerous administrative obstacles and slow economic reforms have discouraged migrants from returning and making business investments. Over the last few years there has been a noticeable effort to provide concrete assistance, introduce benefits and reliefs and stimulate return migrations, particularly of entrepreneurs and highly educated persons, by means of different strategies, legal acts, and the establishment of government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Our decade-long research on migrations has primarily focused on the so-called Gastarbeiter, as well as their descendants. We have conducted research on migrants from Northeastern Serbia, which is one of the biggest emigration zones in the country, and field research was also conducted in Vienna, the city with the most numerous Serbian diaspora in Europe, a specific population which, due to the geographic proximity between Serbia and Austria, often engages in cross-border movement and is transnationally active. As regards the studied population, return migrations to Serbia and economic investment in the country's development are unlikely and certainly insufficient. In this paper, we will look at the classification of returnees as at their motives for a possible return, but also at the numerous reasons for staying in the host country.
Conditions of Labour Migrants in the Republic of Serbia: Preliminary Perspective
Issue of foreign labour migrants in Serbia does not occupy very prominent place in Serbian governmental policies. These policies are mainly focused towards Serbian Diaspora and Serbian labour migrants working abroad. Conversely, national policies on foreigners in Serbia are mostly concentrated on suppression of illegal immigrants and inclusion and readmission of Serbian refugees. The development of Serbian migratory policies represents part of national Euro-integration strategy. Therefore we find relevant to draw attentions to this topic. In this paper we outline basic national legislation procedures, laws and migratory strategies and give review of basic national and other bodies. Furthermore, we focus on gaps in processing problems of labour migrants in Serbia.
2013
This country report was developed in the framework of SEEMIG – Managing Migration and its Effects in SEE – Transnational Actions towards Evidence-based Strategies. SEEMIG is a strategic project funded by the European Union’s South-East Europe Programme. Project code: SEEMIG - SEE/C/0006/4.1/X The country report was prepared within the SEEMIG activity Conceptual framework for modelling longer term migratory, labour market and human capital processes coordinated by the University of Vienna. Executive Summary SFR Yugoslavia, and thereby Serbia as well, was considerably more liberal in comparison to other European socialist countries of real socialism in the economic and political sense from the 1950s up to the end of the 1980s. Numerous economic and social reforms, especially in period of crisis of mid-1960s, aimed to strengthen the economy of the country. In the late 1980s a program of economic reforms and the Law on Social Capital were adopted, which was the beginning of the transition to the market economy. However, the changes started too late considering the presence of very strong disintegration processes that resulted in the break-up of the SFR Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 and the ensuing wars and international sanctions imposed to Serbia led to a major decrease in economic activities and to the blocking of the transition process. After the fall of Milošević's regime in 2000 and complete lifting of severe international sanctions, comprehensive political and economic reforms began, as well as intensification of Euro-Atlantic integrations (the stabilisation and Association Agreement was signed in 2008, and visas for Schengen area were abolished in 2009). It is also a period of intensified increase of GDP per capita (the level of 1980 was achieved in 2005) which again started to decrease with the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2009 together with a general trend of increased unemployment. The political and socio-economic situation in the SFR Yugoslavia considerably affected international migration. After the Second World War, the communist regime almost completely suppressed legal international migration. In case of Serbia, the exception were the controlled emigration of the majority of remaining ethnic Germans (beginning of the 1950s) and Turks, namely population of Islamic affiliation (based on Balkan pact from 1954). Political liberalization from the middle of the 1960s was followed by an expansion of international economic migration. The emigration stock continually increased until the figure of 270,000 persons in 1991. Emigration intensified during the 1990s, so the stock rose to 415,000, according to the 2002 Census, while the 2011 Census showed that it decreased by more than 25 per cent in relation to 2002. However, based on available data on main countries of destination, it may be concluded that the emigration stock was considerably higher. During and after the wars in the Western Balkans in the 1990s Serbia became one of the main destinations for refugees (mainly ethnic Serbs) from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia (more than 600,000 according to refugee census from 1996). Right before and during the NATO military campaign in 1999, over 200,000 internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija came to Serbia. The refugees from Croatia are mainly settled in Vojvodina, and the refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija in Central Serbia excluding Belgrade. Serbia never had a complex migration policy as an independent country or as a part of Yugoslavia (from 1950 to 2006). The Yugoslav government led a very rigorous migration policy all up to the mid 1960s. Emigration was possible only based on bilateral agreements with other countries. Strict limitations for leaving the country were abolished in the mid 1960s, employment abroad and emigration were completely liberated, and there was an effort to protect the legal rights of Yugoslav citizens “temporarily” working abroad through bilateral international agreements. During the 1970s, the government helped returnees to start their own business in the country, but only as a response to intensive return migrations (after the 1973 Oil Crisis). If we consider the case of Serbia’s joining the EU as a realistic future, we would not expect it could happen before 2021 given the current status of the country in respect to the joining process. In the meanwhile, the negative net migration, roughly estimated to be around 15,000 persons per year in the period 2009-2011, might reduce slightly, owing to the financial crisis in Europe. In addition, the perspective of Serbia’s joining the EU may generate a deferred demand for emigration, to be realized after Serbia’s accession. Serbia’s accession to the EU would surely have an important effect, namely, a large-scale emigration of an explosive but relatively short-lived nature, as it happened with emigration flows of Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Slovaks after the 2004 EU enlargement. This is supported by the results of the representative survey from 2010 aimed at estimating potential for emigration from Serbia. However, the post-accession negative net migration from Serbia should be relatively lower, as compared to the situation in the new, post-socialist Member States during the period from 2004 to 2009, mainly due to retiring of the vast majority of the post-war baby boom generations. After the short period of high volume emigration induced by the EU accession, it is reasonable to expect a rapid reduction of negative net migration and, finally, a turn towards positive net migration some 10-15 years later. In that sense, the significance of immigration from third countries will most likely rise over time. However, migration component of the population development is not visible in the political, economic, academic and public discourse of Serbian society. In the strategic documents which the state adopted towards migrations, there has not even been an attempt to find solutions regarding a more complete political response towards international migrations. In the absence of official Serbian statistics, the best source of information on international migration flows from and to Serbia are the data from the destination countries. However, it is probably even impossible to give a reliable estimate of the flows and its changes in time due to political changes in respect to borders and name of the country during the last decade, which particularly affected quality of the destination countries’ migration data by citizenship. Consequently, even in those countries with good registration systems and good statistics on international migration, there are no series of data covering the period prior to 2009 and relating specifically to migrants coming from, or departing to, the territory of the present-day Republic of Serbia excluding Kosovo and Metohija. Furthermore, there is a lack of data for some important destination countries, particularly in respect of return flows. A sufficiently developed consciousness in the political and public discourse on the significance of the migratory phenomenon does not exist in Serbia, nor are the potentials completely recognized of including migrations in development programmes for the country’s revival, including demographic revitalization, and particularly the requirement to comprehensively act in this sphere is underdeveloped. Thus it is necessary to convey the findings of various research regarding migrations to decision makers. The necessity for understanding the emigration drivers should especially be underlined. In that sense, the least what is expected from the state is to strengthen the economy, support health, educational and ecological programmes, develop democratic processes and create an atmosphere of optimism. At the same time, it is important to promote circular movements, accelerate reintegration of returnees and stimulate transfer of knowledge, enhancing the role of Serbian diaspora. Economic and social development of Serbia would not only contribute to a decrease of emigration but would also accelerate immigration into the country. Apart from that, it is important to promote registration of all types of immigrants, define target groups of immigrant population and develop integration measures such as language learning, education or active measures of employing foreigners. At the same time, it is important to create a positive climate towards immigration, develop tolerance and acceptance of immigrants in Serbia.
Identity of Highly Educated Returnees in Serbia
Migracijske i etnicke teme , 2019
The paper examines the data collected through interviews with 50 highly educated returnees from Serbia, carried out in 2017. The main objective was to understand the personal and group identities of Serbian citizens with an experience of migration. The authors applied two conceptual paradigms: first, a primordial one, presupposing that migrants fully preserve their national identity despite being exposed to different cultures, customs, and values at the destination. The second is a social constructionist one, which is further delineated into two main lines of thought: the one assumes that migrants maintain national identity as a "hard core", yet in a continuous process of remaking/recreation as a result of embracing transnational ties. The other which presupposes that migrants build hybrid identities in a permanent flux because they are not firmly grounded in any specific culture. The interpretation of results indicated that a vast majority of returnees have devised hybrid identities. This means that destination society and culture have significantly effected their identity but national roots have still been preserved. The latter is mirrored in their strong sense of belonging to the nation. This may be interpreted as a consequence of two main circumstances. It is hard to expect that national identity can remain unmodified when migrants enrol in educational institutions and bond with scholars all over the world. Besides, the very fact of having maintained national identity made them willing to return and contribute to homeland development, despite Serbia's lagging behind the social and economic developments of countries they had been living in. The results also revealed that the interviewees did not perceive any major difference in national belonging between themselves and non-migrants in Serbia. On the contrary, they did perceive this difference when it came to the diaspora.
Moving to the Welfare Countries: Emigrants from Serbia 1961-2002
Evropejskij Issledovatelʹ, 2014
The main characteristic of Balkan region in history is permanent migration. The character of this migration is changed from period to period. After WWII in Serbia migrations had economical character. These migrations are dominated till the last decade of XX century. According to the 2002 census, in foreign countries lives more than 400,000 citizens of Serbia. About 50 percent of citizens emigrated in decades before 1990, and the next 50 percent emigrated in period between 1990 and 2002. About 80 percent of emigrations are from central Serbia, and rest are from Vojvodina Province. Major emigration from Serbia has been directed towards Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The number of emigrants from Serbia is also high in France, Italy and Sweden. Outside of Europe most of the emigrants went in the United States of America.
Romanian migration is today one of the biggest, complex, and dynamic migration to Western Europe. This paper is a comprehensive review of the existing literature that aims at providing a full picture of this dynamic migratory process and discusses its far-reaching consequences. It first presents and characterizes the Romanian migration through the different phases during and after state socialism. The second part of the paper is dedicated to unfolding the socio-economic effects of the Romanian migration addressing the remitting behavior and its development over the past years. The issue of return migration is also addressed stressing that return is not much developed, however it has significant impacts through the emergence of returnees’ entrepreneurship. Finally we address some of the consequences of the medical doctors’ migration which is today considered one of the main migration challenges the country is facing.
The labour market position of immigrants in Serbia: current status and possibilities for research
Stanovništvo, 2020
An unfavourable position in the labour market relative to that of the local population is one of the specific problems that affect the immigrant population. The aim of this paper is to highlight the position of immigrants in the labour market in Serbia. Special emphasis is placed on discussing the possibilities of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for studying immigration and the position of immigrants within the labour market in countries with pronounced emigration and a low inflow of foreign labour, as is the case in Serbia. The findings are based on the implementation of a qualitative inquiry and additional processed data from the LFS from 2014 to 2018. Given that the majority of people who immigrated to Serbia were from the former Yugoslav republics, the country of birth criterion was used to separate the immigrant population. The research results show that the age-sex structure of working-age immigrants is not specific to economic migrants. Those born abroad do not have a higher unemployment rate than the domestic population, although they are more affected by the problem of long-term unemployment. Based on the analysis of LFS data, a review of contemporary empirical research, and findings obtained from Serbian experts for the purposes of this paper, both the limitations and the confirmed potentials of the LFS for studying the position of immigrants in the Ser-bian labour market were discussed. Moreover , the need for methodological advancement in terms of the coverage of the immigrant population was emphasised.