Our country breaks infamous records when it comes to emigration. According to the latest data, we are in the first place among the world’s countries with the largest annual decrease in the number of inhabitants.
In the last nine years alone, almost half a million citizens left Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The question is whether the latest breaking of the record will finally encourage the authorities to offer a better standard of living and give citizens a reason to stay living and working in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“There is almost no town or place where people have not left and are leaving. What worries us in the year 2022 is that we have about 15,000 people who left the Posavina region, from Western Herzegovina, where living conditions were far better than in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “, points out Mirhunisa Zukic, president of the Union for Sustainable Return and Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The exodus is more evident in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and the negative natural increase has been constant over the last ten years. The main reason for the decrease in the number of newborns is the poor socio-economic situation, due to which the population is migrating en masse.
Negative trend
The Agency for Statistics of BiH stated that the data on the natural movement of the population for the first quarter of this year have not been published yet, sojournalists took the last two years for comparison.
Compared to 2020, in 2021, 124 fewer babies were born. The negative trend, which is also expressed, is the increased number of deaths, so in 2021 we have 22.633 more deaths than births, while in 2020 the difference was 16.809.
Demographer Aleksandar Majic told that the basic problems for our country are the reduced number of fertile contingents and the increased number of deaths, but also that we are threatened with extinction if nothing is done to improve the situation.
”We constantly have a smaller number of fertile women, ie. women who can give birth. The biggest problem for BiH is mortality, we have more and more elderly people and that is why the negative natural increase is increasing. In the next 10-15 years, we can expect an increase in the number of deaths,” Majic emphasized.
Start families abroad
In search of a “better tomorrow”, an increasing number of young people decide to leave BiH and start families abroad.
”Most people emigrate in their twenties and thirties, they are people in the full labor force and the most fertile contingent of the population, people who bring reproduction, ie. children, and contribute to the workforce. We see that in some sectors of the economy there is a shortage of labor, and this is the reason for that,” noted Majic.
Gloomy situation
He explains that this area has always had emigrations, but that in the past this could be compensated by high birth rates and natural increases.
”Now, since we have a negative natural increase and a large outflow of population, we have both natural and mechanical depopulation. The situation is gloomy, if these trends continue, we will see the extinction of the population,” concluded Majic.
In the last ten years, more than 5.000 nurses and medical technicians have left Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Last year alone, 150 of them left the register of the Chamber of Nurses on the basis of leaving the country.
Like the others, health workers are also leaving BiH in search of a better future and a more secure existence. And the number of health workers who seek their happiness outside the borders of our country will continue to grow.
It is not possible to find a job in the profession for years
Elvira Hukic who is taking a German language course is one of them. She is preparing to go to Germany because there is no future in BiH. She graduated from medical school and is a bachelor of law, but has been working as a trader for 12 years.
”Who can love another country and foreign language more than their own? At the age of 37, I have to struggle, break my tongue, speak German, to try to learn, but I have to in order to enable a better future for my family and myself.
It will be very difficult for me to leave, it will be difficult for me to leave my family, it will be difficult for me to leave my friends. But I have to leave because of my children, my children have no future here, and neither do I. If there is an opportunity out there for children to have a better future, to grow up in a healthier and safer environment, why wouldn’t I make it possible for my children,” Hukic emphasized.
Practically a third of the total number of employees in the health care system has left our country, and the consequences of their departure are already noticeable.
”We noticed that we lack operatives, that we lack professional staff, that we lack staff who can currently respond to a certain amount of work. Some jobs have been replaced by overqualified staff, a lot of time is needed to train this young staff,” said the president of the Chamber of Nurses/Medical Technicians at Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDC) Sabina Colic.
Those who have a job also leave BiH
Medical technician Nino Hasanica said they are actually studying for another country. But, to make the situation worse, not only those who do not have a job leave BiH. People who have more than ten years of work experience are also leaving us, and such an example is Sejla MujicBegagic, who said that she is not leaving because of money but because of the general instability in the country.
”The whole system in BiH is a collapse, starting with the right to health, and not to mention politics, no country has five, presidents, three presidents, everyone has one, only BiH has three, and they are arguing over who will carry the flag, which the flag will be shown, and there are so many problems in the country,” told Mujic Begagic.
According to the research of the Union for Sustainable Return and Integration of BiH, half a million inhabitants have left the country in the last nine years, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
