Croatian dilemma: Why People are Fleeing the Country?

While Croatia is faced with new price increases after the introduction of the Euro and higher inflation, a dormant question arose.

Croatian dilemma: Why People are Fleeing the Country?

While Croatia is faced with new price increases after the introduction of the Euro and higher inflation, a dormant question arose.

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If young people with an average salary of 1,000 euros cannot afford an apartment that costs two, three, or more thousand Euros per square meter, with consequently unaffordable rents, then what will keep them staying?

What benefit do entrepreneurs get from the free market if there are no consumers and only a minority of the wealthy and the poor remain in the country?
In a country where the emigration has never been stopped, still suffering from a shortage of workers and in which this year the number of children born will fall below 35,000, creating a new negative all-time record, it is not wise for anyone to threaten with new price increases or arbitrariness that is not in favor of the common good, according to daily Večernji list, fearing that a new wave of emigration is imminent.

"Regardless of all politicians who deny it, the fact is that with the entry into Schengen and the introduction of the Euro, we become even more vulnerable in relation to all those negativities that previously influenced the emigration of young people. Together with price increases, here we have another factor for emigration. Inflation is high, and everything was shaken, despite it happening in other countries as well. Now, we are again a border area of the EU, and we will have considerable migration pressure on Croatia," says demographer Assoc. Ph.D. sc. Stjepan Šterc, Head of the Department of Demography and Croatian Emigration at the Faculty of Croatian Studies.

Some employers, worried about the demographic policy, called him for an interview because they are aware of the problem of the lack of workers, and he told them that the shortage of workers will not be solved just by bringing in foreign workers. Šterc claims that the political system is closed and does not respect the opinion of the profession.

"The cheap workforce that comes to Croatia practically exists and there is no possibility of higher consumption, and given the natural aging of the Croatian population, this consumption will consequently decrease, as well as the entry of EU funds into the budget. All this will have a serious impact as a result of a frivolous approach to the demographic issues", Šterc concludes.

Academician demographer Anđelko Akrap reiterates that Croatia does not have a demographic policy, which is crucial for the survival of the country, as Dijana Jurasić journalist of Večernji list reports.