“It is indicative and worrying that people who are employed or already have a business are moving out. Those who acquired education, knowledge and skills in BiH have emigrated or are emigrating. In this way, Bosnia and Herzegovina practically exports, in the most unfavorable conditions of exchange, hard-built human capital”, the document states.
The total value of “exported” human capital in the period 2014-2018 is estimated at almost 4.5 billion marks.
This is stated in the Proposal of the report on the implementation of the policy on cooperation with emigration for the year 2023, published by the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of BiH, which refers to data from the publication “Sustainability of emigration from BiH”, authored by Anto Domazet, Vjekoslav Domjan, Almir Peštek and Faruk Hadžić.
“BiH is one of the leading European emigrant countries and is among the 11 emigrant countries in the world. The rate of emigration from Bosnia and Herzegovina is about 50 percent (percentage of the total population), and the number of residence permits issued to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU for the first time has been constantly increasing since 2014 as a result of the liberalization of the labor market in EU countries,” states the Draft Report on the Implementation of the Policy on cooperation with emigration.
As it is added, the nature of emigration from BiH is changing in the sense that whole families are emigrating or are intending to emigrate, which has long-term consequences for BiH, because in this way the demographic substance in terms of the work and reproductive potential of the state is being lost.
“It is indicative and worrying that people who are employed or already have a business are moving out. Those who acquired education, knowledge and skills in BiH have emigrated or are emigrating. In this way, Bosnia and Herzegovina practically exports, in the most unfavorable conditions of exchange, hard-built human capital. The total value of the ‘exported’ human capital in the period 2014 – 2018 is estimated at 4,492.9 million BAM or 56,872 BAM per person”, stated in this document, which is in the process of consultation, reports Nezavisne novine.
It was also emphasized that emigration from BiH created a strong diaspora, i.e. emigration.
“It is estimated that there are between two million and 2.2 million people of BiH origin living in emigration, and of this number, 1.8 million were born in BiH. Although they have left BiH, the largest number of emigrants maintain strong ties with BiH, especially with their places of origin, with an expressed desire to contribute to the economic and social development of BiH”, the document states.
The experiences of the Ministry in working with emigration, as well as numerous researches, confirm that emigration is most interested in contributing to the development of BiH through the transfer of knowledge and experience.
“With the new generations in emigration, the connection and sense of belonging to the country of origin is weakening, and precisely the new generations of young people in emigration are more educated and better integrated in the receiving countries, and therefore a great resource for contributing to the development of the country of origin”, this document states.
Sociologist Vladimir Vasić says that in the past we had migrations of mainly artisans and unskilled workers, and today we have a very big problem because we have graduated students, i.e. experts, i.e. professionals, and they bring professional capital and human resources with them.
“So, double resources are going to us. And those countries give us back their “worn out” labor force, that is, those people come back in the third age of life, and there they give birth to offspring, new generations, which have nothing to do with their roots, national origin. In this way, we are losing future generations”, said Vasić for “Nezavisne novine”.
On the other hand, economist Slaviša Raković says that it is obvious that Bosnia and Herzegovina is losing its potential, in terms of quality and professional workforce, but Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the same time, receives the money that these people send here, so that calculation is roughly settled.
“We should also not forget that a large number of pensioners could settle here permanently and transfer their income here. These are incomes from foreign pension funds,” Raković emphasized for “Nezavisne novine”.
