ZAGREB, July 16, 2019 - Germany's population rose by over 400,000 in 2018 as a result of immigration and Croatian citizens, numbering 29,000, were the second largest group of immigrants from the EU last year after Romanians, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany said on Tuesday.

A total of 1.58 million people moved to Germany in 2018, while 1.18 million moved out so that, as a result of migration, about 400,000 more people lived there at the end of 2018 than at the beginning of the year, the office said in a press release.

In 2018, 57,724 Croatian citizens arrived in Germany, while 28,869 departed, so the number of Croatian citizens living there increased by 28,855 to 395,665.

At the end of 2017, 367,900 Croatian citizens lived in Germany, 27,765 fewer than a year later. At the end of 2016, 332,605 Croatian citizens lived there, 35,295 fewer than a year later.

Since 2010, when 220,199 Croats lived in Germany, the number of German residents holding Croatian citizenship rose by 175,466.

Also, 158,595 Croatian citizens have been living in Germany over 25 years, 113,760 stay from one to four years and 34,960 stay there less than a year.

In 2018, Germany recorded the largest number of EU immigrants from Romania (68,000), followed by Croatia (29,000) and Bulgaria (27,000). Last year 22,749 Bosnian citizens arrived in Germany and 10,331 departed.

Eighty-seven percent of last year's immigrants to Germany were foreigners, while the rest were Germans who moved back after living abroad.

More emigration news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 15, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Dubrovnik on Monday the demographic challenge was crucial for the survival of the Croatian nation, adding that the government's measures had resulted in 400 more newborns in 2018 than in 2017.

Croatia is faced with negative demographic trends, he said at the international conference "Demographics, Jobs and Growth: Navigating the Future in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe", co-organised by the Croatian National Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In 1950, Croatia had 100,000 births and 50,000 deaths, whereas now there are 37,000 births and 51,000 deaths, Plenković said.

In order to tackle the demographic challenge, the government has raised parental benefits and the goal is that by mid-2020 they rise 110% from 2017, he said. More than 200 EU-funded contracts for building kindergartens have been signed, and 5,300 housing loan subsidies were approved in 2017 and 2018, so 20,000 families are expected to have new homes by next year, he added.

"Some negative trends are changing, so in 2018 there were 400 more newborns than the year before. A small step forward, but it nonetheless indicates that trends are slowly changing."

Plenković said mothers would receive full salaries for a full year of maternity leave, fathers would get at least ten paid leave days and parents would be enabled to work from home. "We are confident that our efforts to reverse the demographic trends will yield results and that positive demographic trends will follow."

He went on to say that at the Croatian government's initiative, demographic challenges were included in the EU's strategic programme for the next five years. He said this would provide an opportunity for helping what was being done nationally through European policies and funds.

Responding to questions from the press, Plenković said IMF representatives acknowledged the government's achievements, such as lower unemployment, higher employment, active employment measures, economic growth, and exits from the excessive macroeconomic imbalances and excessive budget deficit procedures.

Those achievements also include the restoration of Croatia's investment credit rating, fiscal consolidation, investments, structural reforms in education, pensions, taxes, the judiciary and public administration, a more even regional development, digitisation and catching up with the fourth industrial revolution, he added.

"All that is a package that will give answers to demographic policy questions," Plenković said, adding that a change of mentality was also needed.

As for the labour shortage and the import of workers, he recalled that Croatian citizens could work in 26 EU member states without permits and quotas, saying that too was impacting demography.

He recalled that late last year Croatia adopted a decision on the hiring of 65,000 foreign workers based on industry demands. If we want to move forward, we must have people working in various industries, he said, adding that any EU citizen could come to work in Croatia.

Plenković said the government wanted to activate as many registered jobless as possible, adding that everyone willing to work could get a job. "It's also our goal for the pay for that job to be adequate and in that way to raise their living standards and our economy."

More news about demography can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 14, 2019 - On 1 January 2019, Croatia had 4,076,200 inhabitants, 29,300 fewer than a year before and is among the European Union countries with the highest population decreases, Eurostat said earlier this week.

The largest population decrease was recorded in Latvia (-7.5‰), followed by Bulgaria and Croatia (both -7.1‰), Romania (-6.6‰) and Lithuania (-5.3‰).

In 2018, the population increased in 18 member states and decreased in ten.

On 1 January 2019, the population of the EU was estimated at almost 513.5 million, compared with 512.4 million on 1 January 2018. During 2018, more deaths than births were recorded in the EU (5.3 million deaths and 5 million births). The population change (positive, with 1.1 million more inhabitants) was due to net migration.

During 2018, five million babies were born in the EU, almost 118,000 fewer than the previous year. The highest birth rates were recorded in Ireland (12.5 per 1,000 residents), Sweden (11.4‰), France (11.3‰) and the United Kingdom (11.0‰), while the lowest were registered in Italy (7.3‰), Spain (7.9‰), Greece (8.1‰), Portugal (8.5‰), Finland (8.6‰), Bulgaria (8.9‰) and Croatia (9.0‰).

At EU level, the crude birth rate was 9.7 per 1,000 residents.

In the meantime, 5.3 million deaths were registered, almost 46,000 more than the previous year. Ireland (6.4 per 1,000 residents), Cyprus (6.6‰) and Luxembourg (7.1‰) had in 2018 the lowest crude death rates, followed by Malta (7.6‰), the Netherlands (8.9‰), Spain and Sweden (both 9.1‰).

At the opposite end of the scale, Bulgaria (15.4‰), Latvia (15.0‰), Lithuania (14.1‰), Romania (13.5‰) and Hungary (13.4‰) recorded the highest.

Consequently, Ireland (with a natural change of its population of +6.1‰) remained in 2018 the member state where births most outnumbered deaths, ahead of Cyprus (+4.1‰), Luxembourg (+3.2‰), Sweden (+2.3‰), and France (+2.2‰).

In contrast, among the 15 member states which registered a negative natural change in 2018, deaths outnumbered births the most in Bulgaria (-6.6‰), followed by Latvia (-4.9‰), Lithuania (-4.1‰), Croatia, Hungary and Romania (all -3.9‰).

With 83 million residents, Germany is the most populated member state, ahead of France (67 million), the United Kingdom (66.6 million, Italy (60.4 million), Spain (46.9 million) and Poland (38.0 million.

Malta is the least populated member state (493,600), followed by Luxembourg (613,900) and Cyprus (875,900).

More demographic news can be found in the Politics section.

June 11, 2019 - Another paradox of life in Croatia, as IT companies are now hiring foreign IT professionals as locals are leaving. Are you an IT professional thinking of emigrating but want to stay?

One of the best articles ever written on TCN was Goran Antonijevic's 25 Odd Facts About Croatia, a Land of Paradox, a brilliant look at many of the contradictions of this beautiful and yet troubled land. One of the 25 odd facts relates to employment/unemployment:

12. Large unemployment rate, but in need of working force

This is somewhat connected with paragraph four of this article; there are more than 238 thousand unemployed people enlisted in Croatia, and according to unofficial data, that number is actually higher than 300 thousand. Still, there is a number of employment ads being unanswered, more each day. Croatia is educating an increasing number of specialists that are already highly represented in the unemployed population. So, there are many Croatian economists working as cooks, law school graduates working in construction, philosophers working as IT managers, and quite a number of physicians working as politicians, even though there is a shortage in medical personnel all over Croatia.

With the opportunities in Ireland, Germany and elsewhere, it is not surprising that many younger people decided to emigrate in search of better economic opportunity and higher wages. A lot of people told me that most of the jobs available were very low-paid and seasonal with tourism, and they could earn a lot more abroad. It is an argument I could understand, of course, and yet there were some odd things as I noticed travelling around the country. 

A luxury small hotel on a Dalmatian island, for example, which had tried to hire Croatian staff for the season and spend a lot of money trying to attract staff via the usual employment portals. without success. The conditions for chambermaids, by Croatian standards, were reasonable. A six-month contract with food, accommodation and 6,000 kuna net a month, working 6 days a week. Too low, you cry? Perhaps, but the strange thing is that when the hotel could not find workers in Croatia, they ended up employing mostly from Portugal, as well as countries such as Ireland. 

But the more I travel around and talk to people, the more I see another strange tourism dynamic, and this one has nothing to do with seasonal work or low pay - the IT sector in Croatia. 

Croatia has a tradition of great IT skills, and while the big tech companies do not have offices in Zagreb, the contribution which Croatian technology is making is considerable. For every Mate Rimac, there are several more doing great things in the shadows. Economic reality is dictating that IT workers can earn a lot more in Germany and Ireland than they can in Croatia, which is an argument I can understand. 

My web guys in Varazdin do a fabulous job for me, and I am very happy with all they have done during our 6-year partnership But their efforts to maintain their well-priced and quality service is under constant strain, as finding high-quality developers in Croatia is increasingly difficult due to proximity of the border to higher paying countries in the EU. Again, that makes sense... 

But then... 

Over the last few weeks, I have been spending a lot more time with entrepreneurs, digital nomads and IT companies in Zagreb, working on various ideas and projects. And I have noticed something rather unusual... 

A little like the Portuguese chambermaids on the Dalmatian islands, there are a growing number of foreigners moving TO Croatia, take advantage of economic opportunity, at the same time as many of Croatia IT professionals are heading in the opposite direction.

One company, Oradian, for example, is a global leader in fintech software, with additional offices in Nigeria and the Philippines, as well as its head office in Zagreb. A Venezuelan software employee told me the other day that there were no less than 24 nationalities, including USA and several EU countries. 

They are not alone. There is an increasing number of foreigners moving to Croatia to work in the rapidly expanding IT sector. And I am assuming that people are not leaving good careers in more developed countries to work for significantly less money in Zagreb and elsewhere. 

There is, of course, the issue of foreign wages for foreign developers, and local wages for local developers, and I am sure that this has been a major issue over the years. But I also think that it is one which will even out very quickly out of necessity. Various IT company owners I have spoken in recent weeks all say that they simply cannot find enough quality employees within Croatia, as so many have left. 

I spent part of yesterday morning with a Swiss company whose headquarters are in Zagreb (TCN interview coming soon). A very successful startup and global leader in its field, the company currently employs 20 people and will be looking to take on another 20 within the next year. With so much competition for the skilled IT workers who have remained in Croatia, they are pessimistic about their chances of attracting the right quality personnel by simply advertising, and they are considering a campaign to raise their profile here to make them appear attractive and visible to potential future staff. 

There are other companies I have met who are looking to expand their operations around the country and the region, but they simply cannot find the people. The more I speak to insiders in the industry, the more I can see that it is expanding and the greater the need for skilled Croatian IT workers. And if more IT professionals were aware of the scale of the opportunity, perhaps some would find their perfect job and working conditions in Zagreb or even their home town. 

So if any IT professionals are interested in job opportunities within Croatia, send your CV and a brief covering letter introducing yourself and what you are looking for to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let's see if we can't find a couple of matches to make a small contribution to slow the crushing emigration. 

ZAGREB, April 29, 2019 - Candidates of the opposition MOST party running in the May 26 election for the European Parliament said on Monday that if elected, they would ask that the mass-scale emigration from Croatia be taken into account in the allocation of money from EU funds and that they would seek compensation.

"MOST wants mass-scale emigration from some EU countries to be taken as a criterion in fund allocation so that the EU can develop evenly," MOST leader Božo Petrov told a news conference.

He stressed that Croatia would never be able to achieve the same level of development as the more developed EU countries and that the gap would grow if the mass-scale emigration of educated people was not taken into account.

"We cannot accept to be the periphery of Europe that produces highly qualified personnel for other, more developed countries," he said.

MOST proposes several solutions to the problem, including allocating more money for new EU members from Horizon Europe programme, totalling 96 billion euro, or setting aside more funding for less developed members through the European Research Council.

There can be no economic growth and development without highly qualified personnel, and so far close to 500,000 people have left Croatia, Petrov said, calling on citizens to vote in the coming European elections and punish "the incompetence, negligence and lack of professionalism of those who have managed money from EU funds so far and give a chance to those who fight for Croatia's interests."

More news about European election can be found in the Politics section.

The record number of foreigners lived in Germany in 2018, and their number increased by 292,000 last year and now stands at 10.9 million. The number of people who moved from Croatia to Germany in 2018 was 27,772, according to the German State Statistical Institute in Wiesbaden, reports 24sata.hr on April 16, 2019.

The number of citizens of the Republic of Croatia registered as living in Germany increased by 27,772 from 31 December 2017 and 31 December 2018. This was noticeably fewer people than the year earlier when the number of Croatian citizens in Germany increased by 35,295.

Last year, for the first time since Croatia entered the European Union in 2013, the number of new immigrants from Croatia declined compared to the previous year.

At the end of last year, there were 395,665 Croatian citizens living in Germany, which is 170,694 more than at the end of 2012, which is the last full year in which Croatia was not a member of the European Union.

Most Croatian citizens, around 117,660 of them, live in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

By the number of people living in Germany, Croatia is behind Turkey, Poland, Italy, Syria, and Romania.

At the end of 2018, almost 83 million people lived in Germany. The number of 10.9 million foreigners only includes persons with foreign nationality. If we look at the total number of so-called residents with a migrant background, which includes foreigners, German nationals of foreign origin, as well as ethnic Germans who moved to Germany after the collapse of Communism, their number is 19.7 million, almost twice as large.

The most significant inflow of immigrants last year was recorded from the Western Balkans countries, namely Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania. The rise in the number of immigrants from these countries is linked to the law on immigration of skilled workforce from this part of Europe, which was adopted by Germany in 2015.

In addition to the inhabitants of the Western Balkan countries, the most significant number of immigrants coming to Germany came from India, China and the United States.

Translated from 24sata.hr.

More emigration news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 16, 2019 - Compared with the 2000-2001 school year, the number of children enrolled in Osijek-Baranja County elementary schools in 2019 is down by 10,000, heard a round-table debate held on Monday at the Faculty of Agriculture in the eastern Croatian town of Osijek where the national campaign aimed at stopping brain drain was presented.

The round debate was organised by the Večernji List and Poslovni Dnevnik dailies.

The event was also attended by Osijek-Baranja County Deputy Prefect Petar Lagator who voiced his concern over the departure of young people. He said that economic indicators in the county over the past year were somewhat better, adding that monthly salaries recorded an increase and the number of jobless was reduced, but that the demographic picture was nevertheless worrying.

The proof of that is that a total of 23,000 children were enrolled in Osijek-Baranja County elementary schools in the 2000-2001 school year, while this year there were slightly over 13,000 enrolled pupils.

He also presented figures released by the Employment Service according to which there are 105,000 people economically active in the county last year, of whom 87,500 were employed and 17,500 were seeking employment.

"This year, the number of the unemployed was reduced by 4,000, while the number of the employed increased by 2,500, which means that approximately 1,500 people have disappeared somewhere. It is hard to say whether they moved abroad or have resolved their status in another way," the deputy prefect said.

More news about Croatia’s demographic crisis can be found in the Politics section.

Comments of Croatians who have left Croatia and bleak forecasts about further mass emigration of people from Croatia should be a reason for alarm. Most people who have left Croatia do not want to return. Since independence, not much has been done to keep young people in the country. Asked about the reasons, most give a similar answer: “If you are young and live in Croatia, you have a big problem”, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on March 30, 2019.

Taking into account people who are likely to leave Croatia by 2026, the total number of emigrants could reach 800,000 people, with 300,000 already gone. In the next seven years, Croatia could lose virtually everybody who could emigrate, and then the emigration will stop.

These alarming figures have been published by Tado Jurić, who presented his book about the emigration of Croatians to Germany, which includes the results of the first scientific research on the causes and consequences of the recent emigration wave of Croats moving to Germany.

The survey was conducted in Germany among Croatian emigrants who left Croatia after it became EU member in 2013, on a sample of 1200 respondents. “The book represents the voice of the emigrants who have left Croatia in the last five years, and that is their message to the Croatian government. People living in Germany filled out a whole series of questionnaires, starting with how satisfied they are with life in Germany, why they would not return to Croatia, why they left,” said Jurić.

“No EU member state has ever witnessed an increase in emigration by 1000%, from 5,000 to 50,000 citizens annually, in just four years. Young people aged between 20 and 40 are leaving with their families because they have lost hope and security. Unfortunately, nothing suggests that there is a serious impulse in the society that things could change,” Jurić said and added that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković claims that people are returning to Croatia and that is true. About 15,000 people are returning every year, but these are old emigrants who are retiring, not the young people who have left, Jurić pointed out.

According to the perception of emigrants who have participated in the research, the main motives for emigration are not economic. The analysis of the positions of Croats in Germany has shown that Croatian emigrants believe that the values of work ethic and honesty have not been institutionalised in Croatia and they think that Croatian society has been morally broken.

The main factors leading to emigration are classified into several categories. “The main category is the weakness of the institutions and the immorality of the political elites, so we can say that Croats are emigrating due to injustice, not poverty. On the one hand, we do not reward the correct behaviour, and on the other hand, we do not punish incorrect behaviour. Judiciary is a major issue that our emigrants point out,” Jurić said.

Immoral political elites, legal insecurity, nepotism and corruption are certainly among the leading causes of emigration. If a job position is opened, they are mostly filled with people with the right connections or those who have the correct membership card. Such are the most often heard comments from the emigrants.

Most emigrants are people between the ages of 25 and 40, and they made up 58% of the respondents. Slightly less than 10 per cent of the respondents did not look for work before emigrating, about 39 per cent were unemployed and were actively looking for a job, while 55 per cent were employed.

About 25 per cent of respondents have an entirely negative attitude towards Croatia, and 70 per cent are satisfied with their jobs and lives in Germany. About 51% of them plan to stay in Germany, about 15% could return to Croatia, while the rest could move from Germany to another country. Although Ireland is often mentioned in the media, Germany is still the country where most emigrants move to.

Translated from Slobodna Dalmacija (reported by Jakov Žarko).

More news about mass emigration from Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

In mid-2018, Croatia had just 4.089 million inhabitants, according to the latest estimate by the Central Bureau of Statistics (DZS) published yesterday. According to the most recent census in 2011, the population of Croatia was 4.284 million, so Croatia has never had fewer inhabitants since gaining independence. Unofficial estimates of demographers show that the real number is actually below four million since many of the people who have moved abroad have not registered their new status with the authorities. The DZS estimates the number of inhabitants based on the number of births, deaths, immigrants and officially-registered emigrants, reports Večernji List on February 23, 2019.

The even worse news is the poor age structure. According to the estimate, there are only 590,600 children under the age of 14, while the number of people older than 65 is 833,300. This means that in just seven years the number of children younger than 14 years has been reduced by almost 60,000, while the number of older people has increased by 74,000.

“In my opinion, we have fewer than four million inhabitants, since a large number of emigrants did not register with the authorities. However, even worse is the poor age structure. This brings serious economic and social problems and consequences for the pension and health system. Based on the share of young people, we can expect many schools to close down, which is already taking place, particularly in rural settlements,” says demographer Anđelko Akrap, head of the Department of Demography at the Zagreb School of Economics.

Demographer Stjepan Šterc agrees with Akrap that Croatia has fewer than four million inhabitants. “These estimates on the number of residents in mid-2018 are quite optimistic. The latest data show that we are actually below four million people. The most accurate data is the number of children in elementary and secondary schools since schools annually provide official data on the number of pupils, so we can see that we have lost about 83,000 primary and secondary students in ten years. Approximately 65,000 children attending primary and secondary school have emigrated in the past ten years. When you add a natural decline of 150,000 people, in ten years we have had a population loss of more than 400,000 people,” says Šterc.

Demographer Marin Strmota shares the same opinion. “Unfortunately, these projections have been expected. The age structure is probably even worse due to the migration of people between 25 and 45 years of age, which is an additional burden for the country. Negative trends are continuing, so a few hundred more births last year can hardly mean anything,” says Strmota.

The DZS estimates show another absurdity: it is impossible for Croatia to have 4.089 million inhabitants and at the same time 3,774,548 registered voters, according to the voters’ registry run by the Ministry of Administration. Such a figure would only be possible if young children were allowed to vote.

Interestingly, according to the data from the Croatian Health Insurance Institute, there are 4,146,450 people with health insurance, which is again incompatible with everybody else’s numbers.

More demography news can be found in the Politics section.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Dijana Jurasić).

Autotrolej, the company which manages commuter buses in Rijeka, the third largest town in Croatia, has announced that it is unable to find enough bus drivers for all of its bus lines. Therefore, it changed the timetable and reduced the number of departures on the urban lines in January, and today, on Monday, it has also reduced the number of suburban services, reports Poslovni.hr on February 11, 2019.

Certain services now have fewer departures, some bus lines have been merged, while some services will start later in the morning and end earlier in the evening. Still, on the most used urban and suburban services, at the time of the day when most people are leaving or returning from work or school, the number of departures will remain the same.

Autotrolej explained that, due to an insufficient number of drivers on the labour market, it could not hire enough professional drivers and is therefore forced to change the timetable temporarily. The company pointed out that Autotrolej now has the smallest number of drivers in the last five years and that it employs 313 bus drivers, which is 29 drivers fewer than in early 2018. There is a significant shortage of professional drivers in Croatia, and in the whole of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, there is not a single unemployed driver with a D category licence, which is needed to operate buses.

Therefore, Autotrolej has published vacancy announcements in the offices of the Croatian Employment Service outside of the county as well, offering the future drivers accommodation in Rijeka.

Also, Autotrolej has initiated and funded the training of 12 unemployed C category drivers to acquire D category licences. The company has even reemployed 12 retirees.

Autotrolej operates bus lines in the towns of Rijeka, Bakar, Kastav, Kraljevica and Opatija, and in the areas of Čavle, Jelenje, Klana, Kostrena, Viškovo, Matulji and Lovran. The company is majority owned by the Town of Rijeka.

The problems which Autotrolej and many other companies in Croatia have with finding employees are mostly a consequence of the major emigration wave which has hit Croatia in recent years, especially after joining the European Union in 2013.

Translated from Poslovni.hr.

More Rijeka can be found in our special section.