May 16, 2023 - According to the national employment office data, there has been a massive influx of foreign workers in Croatia, mainly from India, Nepal, and the Philippines.

As Poslovni / Večernji write, from the beginning of 2021 until May of this year, the Međimurje Police Department issued around 8,400 residence and work permits to foreign nationals.

Their number has been growing exponentially from year to year, so in 2021, 2,721 permits were issued, 4,195 were issued in 2022, and in the first four months of this year, 1,546 have already been issued. Looking at the total number of employees, Međimurje, which employs about 42,500 people, is probably the record holder in Croatia regarding the share of foreign workers, who now make up about five percent of the total population of this northernmost Croatian county.

If this pace continues, in five to ten years, a fifth of the inhabitants of Međimurje will be foreign citizens. The county, which faced massive emigration for temporary work abroad in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, is today a destination for foreign workers from Nepal, the Philippines, and India... They choose Međimurje because of good working conditions and vacancies employers usually cannot fill with domestic workers.

"The numbers have been growing rapidly. We have had a sudden increase. Local workers go abroad because they think it's better there, but in my opinion, and I know the situation in the world, that's not the case. But even though wages are slowly rising, soon there will be no employer who will not have to resort to hiring foreign workers", says entrepreneur Ivan Senčar, vice president of the economic and social council of Međimurje County.

According to the data from the Čakovec regional office of the Croatian Employment Service, the ten most sought-after occupations in 2022 and the first four months of 2023 have been locksmiths (280), waiters (214), cashiers(160), numerically controlled machine operators (159), welders (153), tailors (144), shoemakers (142), carpenters (140), truck drivers (119) and cooks (114). Mostly, therefore, these are vocational deficit occupations for which Croatia lacks an available labor force.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

April the 12th, 2023 - The Croatian Tourism and Services Union (STUH) is calling for foreign seasonal workers to join it this year, and there's a very important logistical reason as to why.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, after the model of cooperation with foreign workers from a couple of years ago proved to be very successful on the example of seasonal employees from Macedonia, the Croatian Tourism and Services Union (STUH) has now launched a campaign for the first time ahead of this summer's tourist season, inviting all foreign seasonal workers to join the union and thus protect their rights.

On the one hand, this is an opportunity for the Croatian Tourism and Services Union to strengthen its overall membership, which was lost due to the emigration of workers from Croatia abroad, and to find new models of action in this increasingly unpredictable labour market, and on the other hand, it can bring additional security to foreign seasonal workers when it comes to their labour rights in this country.

Lower membership fees

The president of the Croatian Tourism and Services Union, Eduard Andric, expects that over time, a significant interest of these foreign workers from third countries, which therefore have no EU protection to fall back on, will gradually develop.

"The share of foreign seasonal workers in the Croatian hospitality and tourism industry is increasingly taking a significant place on the labour market due to the great need for workers in the aforementioned sectors. This year, a large number of workers are expected to come from third countries which aren't members of the European Union, and we see that this is not a temporary trend, but a new reality to which we need to adapt, and ensure the maximum levels of respect for these workers' rights.

It's also true that the number of members of our union is falling because people are moving away from Croatia, and this is an opportunity for us to find new members,'' says Andric, recalling the example of STUH's cooperation with the tourism union of Macedonia, which started two years ago and proved to be very successful, as touched on above.

In addition to workers being registered with the union during their time working here during the tourist season, thanks to this kind of cooperation, employers get professional workers who are selected by the unions based on their explicitly expressed needs.

"In fact, numerous employment agencies have appeared on the market that don't care so much about the quality of their workers, they usually bring in anyone who applies and then employers have the problem of not getting the workers they actually need," says Andric. In addition, as the Croatian Tourism and Services Union explains on its website, a large number of seasonal workers, especially workers from countries that are not members of the European Union, are entirely unaware of their labour and other rights. Most often, these workers are the most vulnerable category of workers, according to the European Commission (EC).

At the same time, the EU Directive on foreign seasonal workers, which binds the Republic of Croatia and whose provisions are included in the Law on Foreigners, in most of its provisions provides for the totally equal treatment of seasonal workers and EU/EEA citizens, with certain restrictions related to the legal length of stay in Croatia. The union is strong here when it comes to the proper infrastructure, because it has a branched network of commissioners in the field and alsp boasts its own lawyers.

"In accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners Act, the Labour Act, the national sectoral collective agreement for the hospitality industry, as well as a large number of collective agreements concluded with most employers in large hotel companies, The Croatian Tourism and Services Union provides free legal assistance to all workers in the hospitality industry and tourism who are members of the union, this includes foreign seasonal workers if they become members, all with the aim of the uniform application of legal regulations to all workers present in Croatia, their legal security and their better adaptation to the country," they explain from STUH. Andric notes that the membership fee for foreign workers is lower, given that they are only there for the tourist season.

They noted that their members have the right to access help when concluding an employment contract with a new employer, control of their rights from the Collective Agreement and the company's bylaws, or the national collective agreement, free legal protection at all times, including free representation in court if needed.

For more, check out our news section.

April 7, 2023 - Huge crowds have been forming in front of the Zagreb Police Department in Remetinac for days. There are long lines of foreign workers who need to register their residence or obtain documents, without which they cannot start working in Croatia.

In March, the Service for Citizenship and Status Issues of Foreigners was moved to the Novi Zagreb police station. Hundreds of foreign citizens arrive early every morning and wait in line to sort out the paperwork, writes Index.

Now the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) has made an announcement regarding the issue, stating that it will introduce a special regime due to the crowds.

We are publishing the press release in its entirety.

The MUP is introducing appointment booking and the eRedomat service

"The building of the Zagreb Police Department at Petrinjska 30, after the earthquake in Zagreb on March 22, 2020, suffered significant structural damage. Therefore, based on legislative regulations, a decision was made on the complete renovation of the said building, located in the historic urban center of the City of Zagreb. Considering that this particular case is a complete renovation of the building, this implies that before the work starts, the building in question be freed from all persons and things and that the performance of work, not only work related to foreigners but also the work of registering and issuing documents to Croatian citizens, is moved to other business premises.

In this sense, activities related to the movement, stay, and work of foreigners and issuing biometric ID cards were moved to the address Remetinečki gaj 13 in mid-March of this year. Considering the aggravating circumstances that accompany every relocation, and especially the entire business process, believing in the understanding of our citizens, the problem that appears is a consequence of objective circumstances that we cannot always influence. The Zagreb police department is making efforts in terms of an internal reorganization of work and taking various measures to be more efficient, given that it is impossible to predict the number of parties who contact each day to solve their requests, which unfortunately is not always feasible.

Also, in the affairs of foreigners, officers work with the parties from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and in addition to the stated objective circumstances, according to the available data, all citizens who apply regarding the receipt and delivery of a request for a biometric residence permit card, which requires the foreigner's personal presence and a certain duration of the business process itself (e.g., verification of personal data, taking fingerprints, etc.), will be processed on the same day. We emphasize that the listed tasks are only one part of the tasks that are processed daily, since certain business processes and certain requests are also handled electronically. Considering the complexity of the business processes and administrative actions that are carried out, the competent Service processes a large number of requests daily; for example, on April 5, 2023, 154 requests for foreigner's identity cards were received, 117 created identity cards were delivered, and 110 residence permits were issued.

At the same time, the fact remains that the influx of parties at a certain moment plays a significant role in our work. Most of the parties come in the early morning hours, at the beginning of working hours; however, as the cases are resolved, the waiting time becomes acceptable considering all the actions that must be carried out for each party individually, as shown by the photos, which show that it has already been a couple of hours since the beginning of the work of administrative affairs, the waiting time is significantly less.

We are aware that despite the large number of requests that are continuously processed, there are sometimes larger crowds since it is not possible to influence the number of citizens who have decided at a certain moment (even in relation to the scheduled or changed working hours) or to come to file on a certain day a request to resolve status issues. In this sense, in the coming period, i.e., after relocation, the Zagreb Police Department will listen to the needs of citizens to be, despite objective reasons (primarily the number of employees and the number of citizens who contact us), maximally accessible and efficient.

In addition to the objective difficulties of adapting to the new circumstances, in the following days, the service of booking appointments for receiving and collecting foreigner's identity cards and the eRedomat service will be made available, and the working hours will certainly be adjusted depending on the need," stated the MUP press release.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

November 15, 2022 - It has become common to see foreign workers from third countries performing various jobs in tourism and hospitality, as well as on construction sites in Croatia's summer and winter seasons. Recently, more and more Nepalese, Indians, Filipino, and workers from many other countries can be seen in more and more jobs in Rijeka, especially in delivery jobs.

As written by Novi List and Poslovni, according to data from the Primorsko-Goranska Police Administration, 13,116 requests for residence and work permits were received in nine months of 2022, while a total of 7,617 submissions were received in the same period last year. Only in ​​the city of Rijeka and the Rijeka ring, 4,355 requests were received, while their number last year was 2,732.

A better life in Croatia

One of the foreign workers in Rijeka is the Nepalese Dhirendreom Tamanga who, like many of his compatriots, came to find what they call a better life, but also a better income because he sends a large part of his earnings to his family. "It's better for me to work in Croatia than at home, and with the money I earn here, my family in Nepal can live happily and comfortably," says Dhirendra. He explained that he lives in Rijeka with a group of workers who also arrived from Nepal, and their rent in the city center is paid by the delivery company they work for.

Significantly more permits for foreign workers this year

Marin Šušnjar, director of the Wolt platform in Croatia, confirmed the trend of foreign workers in delivery jobs. According to him, the partners who employ delivery drivers noticed that they could not secure a sufficient number of people only through the applications of Croatian citizens. They decided to expand the base of potential employees and turn to the import and employment of foreign citizens. "The countries with which our partner companies cooperate the most are India, Nepal, and the Philippines, but also North Macedonia, Albania, and other countries closer to us. However, the current percentage of foreign nationals working on the Wolt platform in Rijeka as delivery partners is less than 5 percent of the total number of delivery drivers," said Šušnjar.

Differences in mode of operation

Desanka Babić from the Star employment mediation agency explained the process of hiring foreign workers. Croatian agencies for mediation in employment enter into contracts with local and foreign agencies that, based on their requirements, search for a qualified workforce. Upon arrival, the foreign worker pays only for the plane ticket, while the agencies who bring in the workers, if both parties are satisfied, charge the employer a monthly fee. In this way, says Babić, they worked with GP Krk and many other companies.

"The only and biggest problem will be bringing in a quality workforce trained and familiar with our labour market. Workers who come from India, Pakistan, and Nepal, apart from experiencing culture shock, are not familiar with our way of working and working conditions. At the same time, it cannot be said that they do not know how to work, but they have experience with different work principles, and several months should be found for them to learn and get used to it. Therefore, we have posted relevant information on working conditions on our website and what we are trying to achieve. I think the Government of the Republic of Croatia should also come up with a way to train foreign workers before they start working and arrive in our country. This would reduce the gap according to what foreign workers think is expected of them, and employers would be provided with a quality workforce", concludes Desanka Babić.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

September the 8th, 2022 - There are more and more foreign workers in Croatia, but where do they come from and what sort of work do they typically take up?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, given the fact that Croats have been leaving the country for years to try to find better opportunities, more stability and the chance to comfortably make ends meet, the laboyr market in Croatia has been (as expected) seriously disrupted and burdened by a severe lack of labour for some time now. According to the statistics of the Croatian Employment Service (CES), among the most sought-after professions for which a positive opinion was issued in the period from January to August 2022, are precisely those related to construction.

The most work permits for foreign workers have been issued for the following trades: construction workers (6,476), followed by masons (5,194), civil engineering workers (3,359), carpenters (3,299), locksmiths (2,265), welders (2,231), facade workers (2,161), electricians ( 1,727) and installers of building elements (1,645). The Ministry of the Interior (MUP) confirmed for the Baustela.hr portal that an increase in the number of residence and work permits has been observed in recent years. Back in 2019, 72,523 such permits were issued, in 2020, 66,655, and in the last year, this number increased to 81,995 permits for foreign workers.

This year, and only until July the 31st, 77,205 permits for foreign workers were issued. Of these, 48,167 were for new employment, 14,294 were permit extensions, and 14,744 were for seasonal employment. This means that in the last three months alone, 25,689 foreign workers requested such permits.

In addition, according to the data currently available to the Ministry of Interior, and regarding the citizenships of foreigners who were issued residence and work permits, the largest number this year was issued to citizens of: Bosnia and Herzegovina (23,799), Serbia (13,764), Macedonia (7,468), Nepal (7,141) and Kosovo (5,407). Regarding the activities in which foreign nationals are mostly employed in in Croatia, construction is the leader (29,702), followed by catering, hospitality and tourism (26,211), industry (9,467), transport and communications (3,765), and agriculture and fishing (1,678).

From the data they received from the Ministry of the Interior, regarding the extended permits, there is a huge numerical difference between the activities. A massive 8,517 were extended in construction, while 1,138 were extended in catering, hospitality and tourism, and only 355 were extended in trade.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

August the 17th, 2022 - There are more and more foreign workers in Croatia from all over the world. There will soon be more than 100,000, in fact, with employees having come from nearby war-torn Ukraine to all the way from India and beyond.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, RTL talked about the growing number of foreign workers in Croatia, but also how we might work to retain the ''homegrown'' labour force from Croatia, with the CEO of the Croatian Association of Employers (HUP), Damir Zoric.

The Republic of Croatia will soon exceed the number of 100,000 work permits having been issued for foreign (non EEA) workers, and Zoric said that the cause of this is the large demographic changes that Croatia is still going through, the increasing numbers of the younger generation leaving Croatia to work elsewhere, and the paradoxical situation of the outflow of labour on the one hand, but also economic growth on the other.

"The Croatian economy has to find its way and now requires the import of labour," he told RTL. He also said that highly qualified workers and low-qualified workers, of which there are very many, come to Croatia.

"These are workers in service industries, primarily in tourism, hospitality and catering, they're also construction workers who are extremely needed and in high demand, and there are some of them working in agriculture in seasonal jobs. Croatia is dominated by foreigners who come from neighbouring countries, traditionally for them, Croatia is the area where they find work. There are more and more people coming from Asian countries, but also from Ukraine and the Philippines," he said.

He also said that employers only have words of praise for foreign workers in Croatia. "People praise them, saying that they're extremely hardworking, disciplined, yes, of course they need a period of adjustment, which is natural, but I don't know of a single case where people have expressed themselves in any sort of negative manner," he said.

He also commented on whether the days have passed when local workers worked in hospitality, tourism and catering establishments on the coast, considering that there are more and more foreign workers in Croatia doing such jobs. "We need to see what happens in certain Western countries. When you arrive at a hotel in Paris, it's rare to see a native Frenchman working there, these are people who have sought happiness in work and life in France. Croatia is on that path and it will not stop now," he said.

He also commented on whether foreign workers in Croatia work under conditions and for wages that Croats don't want to work for.

"Everything is a matter of the market, it's about the relationship between demand and supply. For some, a salary of 500 or 600 euros is good, for some it isn't, and that's why what is happening is that some people leave and some come," he said. When asked how we might retain the local workforce, Zoric said: "Net wages need to be higher for Croatia to be more attractive to people with a higher educational structure, more complex knowledge and more demanding occupations.''

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 12 July 2022 - Without new residents and bringing in workers from abroad, Croatia cannot maintain a welfare state, it was said on Tuesday at a conference - "How to boost economic development with labor policies and continuous investment in education" - at the Lavoslav Ružička Polytechnic in Vukovar.

The director-general of the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) Damir Zorić assessed that a large part of today's unemployed people in Croatia fall into the category of hard-to-employ and those whom the labour market can hardly count on.

"The second part of the problem is young people leaving the country and the third problem is trying to import labour. Last year, Croatia issued about 100,000 work permits to foreigners, and this year we already reached that number around the middle of the year," Zorić said, adding that the majority of foreigners coming to work in Croatia are from neighbouring countries, but even that "pool" has already been somewhat exhausted.

According to Zorić, Croatia is now turning more and more to India, Romania, and Ukraine, where mostly poorer educated workers are coming from.

"Unfortunately, we are not yet attractive enough for highly educated personnel, because with our salaries we can hardly meet their demands", he said, adding that it is necessary to make labour costs in Croatia cheaper so that workers earn more while reducing obligations to the state.

State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Pension System Ivan Vidiš considered that the ministry's participation was important in the creation of a portal for advanced monitoring of the labour market and education. It is a research tool that brings together all data on the labour market in one place, from data on employment and unemployment in the sector to data on secondary and higher education for occupations in that sector, as well as data on the workforce and employers' needs.

For more, check out our politics section.

May the 26th, 2022 - Is the Croatian construction industry simply doomed to have to import foreign (non-EEA) labour as an attempted long-term strategy to keep things afloat?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, there are fewer and fewer ''homegrown'' workers in the Croatian construction industry, and an increasing number of foreign workers on construction sites pose a number of challenges to the companies that hire them, according to the panel discussion "Challenges of the workforce" which was held in Zagreb recently.

Dragutin Kamenski, the director of the very well known company Kamgrad, pointed out that if the country successfully removed all other challenges that the Croatian construction industry is currently facing, and only the lack of manpower remaind, we'd still be in trouble.

A very complex process

"Now, the state has begun to take steps to facilitate labour migration, but it remains to be a very complex process because it requires additional efforts in bringing and introducing a new workforce to a particular company, as well as additional organisation and costs. As there is no additional base for recruiting labour here in Croatia, it's clear that in the long run we're doomed to importing foreign construction workers under any conditions,'' said Kamenski, adding that so far, they have had all kinds of situations with agencies that bring in foreign workers arise.

"Recently, a large number of agencies have appeared that bring in foreign labour, and time will show which ones are good and bring in high quality workers, and which aren't. If you end up with inadequate workers, it raises your costs and you're less competitive overall,'' Kamenski pointed out.

Based on his own many years of experience, he stated that in fact the best workers were those who did their training within large construction systems, and then eventually moved to smaller companies such as Kamgrad.

However, he is aware that is now rapidly becoming a thing of the past and that such workers no longer exist, and that now the focus should be on developing the Croatian construction industry's workers here in the country, and even more on selecting and introducing a foreign worker and then educating and introducing them to the whole process.

“Technical staff without knowledge of the Croatian language can only do a small range of work. We employ 10-15 trainees a year, of which only one or two remain,'' concluded Kamenski. Danijel Risek, the director of Hidroing, pointed out that they're a relatively small company that didn't have any major needs for the import of foreign labour, and what they did experience had a focus on nearby Kosovo.

“We're too small a company to go into the process of finding a workforce on our own, so we're referred to agencies. It's important to have a correct relationship with such agencies so that they know exactly what we need,'' said Risek. Stjepan Jagodin, the director of Pinoy385, a company specialising in the employment of Filipino workers, said that there are currently more than 300 agencies across the Republic of Croatia registered for employment mediation.

"An unregulated market leads to a situation where everyone comes to us, without any selections and conditions, and then the problem is that companies that hire such workers. In tourism, there are precise conditions that you must have and know in order to open an agency, and employment mediation can be done by anyone. That must be regulated urgently,'' Jagodin said.

Knowledge of the market

Ana Jadresin from the Manpower Group pointed out that it takes time for the market for mediation in the employment of foreign workers to be profiled. "Agencies that deal with employment mediation, be they domestic or foreign, must have a good knowledge of the market and the needs of their clients - what exactly companies need, what qualifications are necessary, what level of digital literacy there is, etc.

The problem is often that the client himself doesn't know what kind of workers he needs and what qualifications will be necessary, so it becomes difficult to meet their expectations. On the other hand, it's pointless to give unrealistic promises to foreign workers about a country with rivers full of milk and honey, because that only leads to frustration,'' stated Jadresin.

The issue faced by the Croatian construction industry isn't something new. The demographic crisis the country has been in for a very long time now has been a gradual drain on labour across all fields, even with the tourism sector, otherwise the country's strongest economic branch, also suffering tremendously. The Ministry of the Interior's infamously drawn out and draconian procedures often result in employers not getting work permits approved for their foreign staff in time, resulting in the dire need for a rethink.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

May the 16th, 2022 - The height of 2022's summer tourist season is rapidly approaching, and the Croatian labour force is still missing around 15,000 employees. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the director of the Directorate for Development, Investments and Competitiveness of the Tourism Economy at the Ministry of Tourism, Robert Pende, said recently on the radio that the Croatian labour force, when it comes to the all important tourism sector, currently lacks as many as 15,000 workers, although he expects the deficit to decrease as time goes on.

"Currently, according to the information we've received from the sector itself, there are about 10,000 people who should come or be employed for this tourist year," said Pende, referring to the lack of workers in the tourism sector, which is ironically Croatia's most important economic branch.

However, he pointed out that many permits for foreign workers (meaning those from non EU-EEA countries such as neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, who require special permission in order to work here) are still in the process of being requested, so he expects those numbers to be somewhat lower eventually.

MUP is notoriously slow in processing employer requests for work permits for third country nationals such as the citizens of the aforementioned non EU countries, with cases of those would-be employees throwing in the towel and going elsewhere or only being approved for their work permit when the tourist season is already well and truly underway.

"In any case, we will have a deficit, I would say, throughout the main tourist season," Pende told HRT.

The president of the Dubrovnik County Chamber, Nikolina Trojic, said that the need at the Croatian national level is certainly between 15 and 20 thousand workers that must be introduced from somewhere.

"At the level of Dubrovnik-Neretva County alone, there are certainly at least two or three thousand people who are needed to come and work this season, so it's that many would-be employees who are missing. It's very difficult to fill that number from the Croatian labour force, and we will undoubtedly have to continue to import labour from abroad,'' added Trojic.

Dubrovnik already has a significant number of employees each summer season from nearby Trebinje, which is just over the border in the Republika Srpska governed part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that alone often causes rifts among locals who remember people from Trebinje attacking Dubrovnik thirty years ago. The issue with filling the Croatian labour force isn't only an issue economically, but on a much more personal level, with many feeling that the Dalmatian coast's many restaurants should be filled with Croatian, preferably local staff, and not those from Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia.

For more, check out our business section.

December the 2nd, 2021 - There are thousands of foreign workers from distant countries outside of both the EU and the rest of Europe living and working here in Croatia. Slavonia is home to many of them, and we're going to take a quick look at just how Osijek Nepalese residents living and working in that Eastern Croatian city live.

As RTL/Sib.hr writes, large numbers of Indians, Filipinos, Thais and many other foreigners are currently working in Croatia. In the City of Osijek, for example, is home to as many as 80 Nepalese nationals. Their homeland lies a distant 6000 kilometres from "Kruasija", as they call this country, but even without mountains and temples to speak of in flat Slavonia, Osijek Nepalese residents still somehow feel quite at home.

They manage to save part of their salaries and send it home, too, as is a common practice in such cultures where taking care of family is paramount. Croatian reporter Tin Kovacic found out all about how these Osijek Nepalese residents live, what they eat and just how they find life in the often overlooked Eastern part of the country.

If you type in Nepal on Google, you will see that you need to travel 6,000 kilometres (and a half) of the globe to arrive there from Slavonia. These 80 Nepalese nationals did just that, but in the opposite direction. They travelled half the world to get a job in an Osijek company that produces plastic packaging. They came legally through an agency and they pay for their health insurance, their pensions, all of their taxes and earn a living. This is what their work day looks like on the production line:

"I work here for about eight hours a day. It's not hard," Dilbach says.

They have a completely equal status with their 500 fellow Croatian nationals working here.

"They're very valuable workers. They want to help us. They're good work colleagues," says Aleksandra Peric, who is from Osijek.

After work, they like to walk around the city, which is where Tin got better acquainted with these Osijek Nepalese residents, who switched their climate for a home along the Drava. Osijek and Croatia have not been unknown places to them for the past three years.

Sunil Bam says:

"My friends have been to Croatia before. We talked about it and corresponded. They told me that Croatia is a good country. If you want to come here, Croatia is the best place."

In that Asian country, they are mainly engaged in agriculture, and Nepal continues to be one of globe's poorest countries. The average salary there is around 1,300 kuna per month, and here they have all of their accommodation and food paid for, and they earn around 5,500 kuna each month. A handsome increase.

"Oh yeah, we get more money here than we would back home. And every month when we get paid, we send a portion of it back home to our families," Bam says. For some, the plan is to earn enough and return to Nepal, and for some, to bring their family here and stay and live and work in Croatia permanently, as it seems the Slavonian temperament suits them best.

"Yes, I love the people here. They're very friendly and polite," says Manoj Achary.

Slavonian food is not foreign to them either, he adds, although they still like to cook their own traditional chicken and rice. The Bam confirmed that all food and accommodation is provided by their employer, but despite that, they still love to cook their own Nepalese dishes that they know so well. They have, however, tried some Slavonian food, comically describing ''something that looks like sausage.''

These Osijek Nepalese residents also know how to make a good lunch, according to Achary:

"We come into town and we drink your beer. Then we go to the Drava river, then we head back home,'' said Achary, who said he has grown to like local beer a lot. They naturally have the most problems with the notoriously difficult Croatin language, but they are attending Croatian classes and have mastered the basics. In order to get along as well as possible, they founded the Association of Friends of Nepal. The City of Osijek is also helping them out, organising various gatherings through the local plan for the integration of migrants, and even though they prefer volleyball and cricket, they've visited the Osijek Football Club.

For more, make sure to check out our lifestyle section.