More and more people are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina, (BiH) and the real exodus is expected in the coming years as the European Union countries open their markets.
It is widely known that Europe lacks workforce, making the entrance of workers increasingly easier. On the other hand, people in BiH have a strong desire to go and to work in one of the EU member states.
Majority of people who live in Bosnia-Herzegovina (60.5 percent) have experienced a close family member or close friend going abroad in the last three years. One in three respondents (30 percent) did not have this experience, according to a survey by the Banja Luka-based Prime Communications Agency.
The results of the survey show, according to this agency, that 48.9 percent of BH citizens do not plan to leave the country, while 17.6 percent of them did not answer or said they did not know. In the next year, 12.3 percent of the population plans to leave, 7.5 percent in two years, 7 percent in three years and 6.7 percent in five years.
“All in all, in the next five years, every third resident plans to leave the country (33.5 percent),” Prime Communications quotes.
The survey was conducted in December last year, with 1,600 respondents participating, and the oral interview technique was applied based on a pre-prepared questionnaire.
In January last year, Gallup’s research revealed the number of people in BiH who want to move and this is definitely the biggest alarm for the local authorities, BiznisInfo writes.
According to the research, 32 percent of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to leave the country.
The percentage of the highly educated population who wants to leave BiH is as much as 40 percent. But what is particularly worrying is that 57 percent of young people, aged 15 to 29, want to leave BiH.
This means that if all the young people who wanted to leave from BiH actually leave, the population of our country, in the long run, would be more than halved.
According to a Gallup survey, which has covered nearly half a million people in 152 countries, BiH is 6th worst state in the world when it comes to the population who want to leave. In the first place is Sierra Leone from which 78% of young people want to leave, followed by Liberia, Haiti, El Salvador, Nigeria, etc.
