According to the latest World Bank report, “Migration and brain drain in Europe and Central Asia”, so far, Bosnia and Herzegovina is left by almost half of the population, or 49.5 percent.
This means that half of BiH-born citizens now live outside of BiH.
Albania ranks second in Europe with 39.8 percent, while North Macedonia is fourth – a quarter of Macedonians (25.7 percent) born in the country now live outside it.
One fifth of the population (21.9 percent) left Croatia and, after Malta, has the highest rate of emigration in the European Union.
Montenegro also left a fifth of the population, but there are no data for Serbia and Kosovo.
The emigration rates of highly skilled workers are particularly high in some of the lower-income countries of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
The report says that highly qualified persons make up 55 percent of the total number of expatriates from BiH, more than 40 percent in Armenia and Latvia, and nearly 40 percent in Albania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Macedonia and Romania.
Various factors affect brain drain from these states. In addition to higher incomes, there are opportunities for professional development and training, a better future for family members (such as opportunities for schooling for children), and better living and working conditions.
The proximity and preferential access to the labor markets of the European Union, Oslobodenje newspapers reports.
