SARAJEVO, Feb 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — More than 200,000 citizens have emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) over the past decade, said scholars here, when presenting their research called “Emigration Study in BiH.”
Led by the Academy of Sciences and Arts of BiH, the study was conducted by seven researchers in 2019 based on a sample of 2,000 citizens from five major regions of BiH.
The study shows that Germany, Croatia, Austria and Slovenia are destination countries for the majority of Bosnian emigrants. Interviewees said that unemployment and low living standard are among the main reasons that drive young people out of BiH.
According to Eurostat, the European Union (EU)’s official statistics agency, more than 54,000 BiH citizens received residence permits in EU countries, mostly in Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
The study shows that around 50 percent of emigrants returned to BiH from Germany, a prime destination of choice for vast majority of BiH emigrants.
The study also detected an extensive volume of so-called cyclic migration or seasonal leaving BiH for work in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria.
Some countries like Slovenia, Germany and Austria have fine-tuned their legislations in order to attract workers from abroad, which is obviously very bad for the labor market in BiH, said Milos Trifkovic, a senior legal researcher.
According to the 2015 population statistics, the total population of BiH was 3,867,055. — NNN-XINHUA
